Daniel Pesca has been hailed as “the perfect composer-virtuoso pianist” (All about the Arts) and “equally talented as pianist, composer and advocate of his peers’ works” (Fanfare). Noted for their poetry and lyricism, his works have been commissioned with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music, and New Music USA. He has composed for the American Wild Ensemble, Constellation Chamber Concerts, the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition, Sound Impact, Texarkana Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Eastman Philharmonia, guitarist Dieter Hennings, flutist Sarah Frisof, pianist Eunmi Ko and bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward, among others.

Daniel is among the most active pianists of contemporary music of his generation. He recently performed his piano concerto, Up North, with five orchestras across the country. He has taken part in the premiere of about 200 works, and is a member of the Grossman Ensemble and the Zohn Collective. His performances appear on 20 commercial recordings—including two albums of his own, Promontory and Walk with me, my joy. Daniel has performed as concerto soloist in works by Messiaen, Berg, Stravinsky, Carter, Bernstein and others with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the Slee Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the League of Composers, the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and the American Soundscapes Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. A native of Huntsville, Alabama, Daniel is an Associate Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.