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Daniel Kessner

educator

About this Artist

Composer-flutist-conductor Daniel Kessner received his Ph.D. with Distinction at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1971, studying with Henri Lazarof. His more than 140 compositions have received over 800 performances worldwide, and 28 works are recorded commercially. Most of his scores are available from Theodore Front Musical Literature at tfront.com.

Kessner’s most important awards include the Queen Marie-José International Composition Prize in Geneva (1972), a 2003 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to lecture and perform at the Musikhochschule in Trossingen, Germany, a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant to perform and lecture in Trondheim, Norway in 2007, and similar residency at the Universidade do Minho in Portugal in 2011.

He is now Professor Emeritus at California State University, Northridge, retired after a career of 36 years teaching composition and music theory and directing various ensembles from 1970 through 2006.

As a flutist, he has given flute-piano recitals with his wife, Dolly Eugenio Kessner, in France, Italy, Holland, Germany, El Salvador, England, Portugal, Norway, and the Czech Republic, and has performed in numerous chamber music concerts. He has appeared as a guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Black Sea Philharmonic of Romania, the Moorpark Symphony Orchestra, and more recently the Trondheim Sinfonietta, among others. He has been an Upbeat Live lecturer for the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1983.

In the spring semester of 2006 he joined the faculty of the University of Hawaii on a one-semester appointment. In the fall of 2006 he accepted a similar position at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California. He enjoys an active career as a composer, conductor and flutist.