Aidan Daniels
Instrument: Violin
Biography:
Aidan Daniels is an award winning 19 year old violinist from Chicago, Illinois. A passionate lifelong musician, Aidan began his studies at the age of 4 at a local music school. Things became a lot more serious around age eleven when he saw a concert by the Chicago Youth Symphony orchestra. This was a pivotal experience because it is what launched him into pursuing the violin as a career. That next year, at the age of 12, Aidan was given a full scholarship to attend Sphinx’s performance academy, a chamber music academy for African American and Hispanic musicians. His quartet was selected later that year to perform for Michelle Obama and other dignitaries at the White House representing the Sphinx Organization at an event organized by Mrs. Obama to recognize youth in the Humanities and Arts. From then on, Aidan has be honored to play at the world’s most prestigious halls including: Carnegie Hall, The Musikverein, The Royal Concertgebouw, the Konzerthaus Berlin, The Gewandhaus, Symphony hall in Boston, etc). Aidan played with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra for nine consecutive seasons spanning from 2013-2022, where he was frequently selected as a principal or concertmaster. From 2019-2022 Aidan was also selected to perform in Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) as well as NYO2, where he got to work closely with phenomenal orchestra musicians and mentors such as David Chan, Ying Fu, Amy Oshiro-Morales, and Erin Keefe. In addition to orchestra, Aidan is also a passionate chamber musician. In 2021, his violin teacher Desirée Ruhstrat assembled a quartet of students called the Sprezzatura quartet to tour to France for the festival Musique dans Le Gers, to coach with her chamber group, the Black Oak Ensemble, and to compete at the highest levels of pre-college chamber music competitions the following year. In 2022, the Sprezzatura quartet competed in the Rembrandt chamber music competition, Coltman competition, Midwest Young Artists (MYA) Chamber Music Competition, and Saint Paul String Quartet Competition. They received honorable mentions and audience prizes at MYA, Coltman, and Rembrandt competitions. At Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, they received a Bronze medal and an audience prize for best interpretation of a new work. Aidan has been fortunate to have been awarded a scholarship from the Chicago Music Pathways Initiative (CMPI) for three consecutive seasons from 2019-2022. During that time he performed in masterclasses led by Ray Chen, Julian Rachlin, Phil Setzer, and David Chan. After being admitted to the world’s top conservatories in early 2022, Aidan decided to continue his musical journey at New England Conservatory in Boston where he studies currently with a generous dean’s scholarship under the tutelage of Nicholas Kitchen. In the summer of 2023, Aidan was invited by Benjamin Zander to tour to South Africa and perform in the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (BPYO). Aidan plans to continue performing in BPYO for the next few seasons including on their summer 2024 tour to Vienna, Prague, Munich and Berlin.
Aidan plays on a 2019 Douglas Cox violin which is graciously on loan from The Virtu Foundation.
