Daniel Musashi

Daniel Musashi is a composer of Japanese and Syrian heritage, whose work integrates elements of both cultures into a distinctive musical voice. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Music, supported by the RCM Studentship, under the supervision of Professor Mark Bowden and Dr. Jonathan Cole. 

Daniel’s research explores the intersection of Japanese and Syrian traditions through choreomusical collaboration, developing a shared score that integrates Japanese calligraphy and Arabic script as a guiding framework for musicians, dancers, and visual artists. Influenced by Marko Ciciliani’s Music in the Expanded Field, his work examines how notation extends beyond conventional parameters, embracing movement, space, and visual art as integral to performance. By engaging with traditional and experimental interdisciplinary approaches, the research aims to highlight these cultural traditions while addressing their underrepresentation in contemporary art. 

He was the first Orpheus Sinfonia Composer in Residence, with his commissioned work Marblesplash premiering at their Season Finale Concert in May 2024. His music has received First Prize at the Vienna Composition Lab 2024, Second Place in the County Hall Arts Symphony Concours 2023, and the Jury’s Award at the 28th TIAA Japanese National Composer’s Competition. His recent collaborations include a feature at the Kew Gardens Sounds of Blossom Festival 2024, the Wallace Collection, and choreomusical projects with the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and the English National Ballet School. His multidisciplinary production, AMANARI (2023), was staged at the RCM’s Britten Theatre in collaboration with the Tokyo National Museum, London Contemporary Dance School, and Royal College of Art. 

Daniel holds an MMus in Composition from the Royal College of Music, where he studied under Dr. Ed Bennett, and a BMus (Hons) in Composition from HKU Utrecht Conservatorium, and has taken masterclasses with Colin Matthews, Malcolm Singer, Dr. David Ludwig, and John Adams, completed the Curtis Mentor Network program under Dr. Daniel Felsenfeld, and is published by Universal Edition.