Daniel Schnyder

Photo by Thomas Cugini

Daniel Schnyder is known as a composer/performer with a dynamic reputation in both jazz and classical fields. He has recorded over ten CDs of his own music for Enja Records, Col Legno, Koch Jazz, CCnc, Universal, BIS, TCB, Arabesque and Red Records. As a performer Schnyder toured and recorded with many well-known classical musicians, world music artists and jazz players.

Schnyder was born 1961 in Zurich, Switzerland and lives in New York City. His orchestral works and his chamber music compositions have been performed and recorded all over the world. Among his credits as a composer are commissions from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York, the Tonkuenstler Orchestra in Vienna, the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, The Norrlands Operan in Sweden, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Vienna Art Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich (4th Symphony, commissioned by David Zinman), the Opera of Bern (“Tempest” by Shakespeare), the NDR Orchestra in Hannover, the NDR Big Band in Germany, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the New York based new music group “Absolute Ensemble” under the direction of Kristjan Jarvi (Bass Trombone Concerto for David Taylor) and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra among many others.

Schnyder wrote DraKOOL after seeing a cartoon movie with his children about a monster party at Count Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania. It was premiered in Sigisoara in Romania, the birth place of Dracula. According to the composer, the work begins at a Monster party, and includes fun dance music “with some monster flavors.” The next movement is Dracul’s lament. With his soul trapped, earthbound and unable to ascend to the heavens, he sings the Transylvanian blues. The piece ends with a “wild and fast” movement representing Dracul’s battles with Mehmet, his long-time enemy and leader of the Ottoman empire.