Daniel Dodds
Daniel Dodds is an inspiring musical force. His enthusiasm and compelling energy on stage elicits “joie de vivre” in fellow musicians and audiences.
Concerts have led Daniel Dodds to major classical music venues in all inhabited continents, as Artistic Director of Festival Strings Lucerne, as a soloist together with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Oksana Lyniv, Alexander Briger and Stanley Dodds, and as a chamber musician, documented by numerous live radio and TV performances. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, the Sophia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Australian World Orchestra and the Festival Strings Lucerne are amongst the orchestras with which Daniel Dodds has collaborated with as a soloist.
With his critically acclaimed solo CD “Time Transcending” released by Oehms Classics, Daniel Dodds shows that he knows no limits on the violin.
As Artistic Director of Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds combines Festival Strings Lucerne‘s warm expressive sound, characteristic of the Viennese music tradition of it‘s founders Rudolf Baumgartner and Wolfgang Schneiderhan, together with a finely honed sense of style and musical timing, to create music that is spell binding in its depth of color and sense of drama.
This is echoed in the press:
“The five movements appeared to light up from within of their own accord. Baroque rationality and romantic emotionalism happily complemented each other…”
Frankfurter Neue Presse
“What Daniel Dodds achieved from the first desk in the Dvoràk was simply splendid and lent the piece exemplary melodic intensity, sensous timbre and vigour”
Neue Luzerner Zeitung
Daniel Dodds has expanded Festival Strings Lucerne‘s repertoire to include exciting performances of works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Milhaud, Vasks and Gubaidulina, as well as commissioned works by Swiss composers such as Luigi Laveglia and Stephan Hodel. Enthusiastic responses from audiences the world over have led Daniel Dodds and the Festival Strings Lucerne to be invited as the first Swiss orchestra to perform at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, to inaugurate the Giovanni Arvedi Auditorium in Cremona, and to appear regularly at major music Festivals such as Lucerne Festival, Schleswig Holstein Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Musica Insieme Bologna and Hong Kong Music Festival.
Daniel Dodds appears regularly as concertmaster of the Australian World Orchestra, working together with acclaimed conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle and Simone Young, and appearances as guest concertmaster include concerts with Camerata Salzburg and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Passionate about accompanying and advising young musicians and violinists on their musical journey, Daniel Dodds has a violin class at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He also meets and coaches young musicians whilst on tour abroad and at the Talent week of the Festival Strings Lucerne during the summer.
Born in Australia to Australian Chinese parents, Daniel Dodds started playing violin at the age of five with Alita Larsens. He completed his violin studies with Gunars Larsens in Lucerne, Switzerland as well as Keiko Wataya in Utrecht, Holland. Daniel Dodds gained further guidance and inspiration from personalities such as Rudolf Baumgartner, Franco Gulli and Nathan Milstein, who, upon hearing Daniel Dodds rendition of a Paganini Caprice, remarked: “Who is this violinist, he could truly be Paganini‘s Grandson!”
Daniel Dodds performs on the “ex Hämmerle – ex Baumgartner” 1717 Stradivarius, kindly loaned by the Festival Strings Lucerne foundation.
