DANIEL KNAGGS is a composer whose music is commissioned and performed across the globe. After living in Mexico, Nicaragua, and France, and having studied six foreign languages, he continues to explore the interplay between music and linguistics while maintaining an international outlook in his work. He loves evoking vivid imagery in his music, as well as focusing his efforts into projects such as his 50-year Ave Maria Project (2005-2054) and his “After” Motets Project. His works are published by Edition Peters, Hal Leonard, Walton, GIA, E. C. Schirmer, Cadenza Music (UK), and Morcelliana (Italy) and his latest CD recording Two Streams was released by Capella Records in November 2023.

Knaggs’ music has received a number of awards in the USA and abroad. His composition To everything a season won the 2019 Noël Minet Prize at the Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition (Germany), and his compositions were awarded first prize in the 2012 David Maria Turoldo Composer Competition (Italy), the 2011 International Musica Sacra Competition (Poland), and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir’s 2010 International Commission Competition (USA). Knaggs’ music also won first prize in both the Michigan and Illinois State Music Teachers Associations’ competitions (2011, 2012), and he was named a finalist for the SCI/ASCAP Commission Competition (2014), The Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Composer Competition (2011), and the Minnesota Choral Arts Ensemble Commissioning Competition (2010).

Increasingly sought after as a composer, Knaggs has recently been commissioned by the 2023 Puccini Chamber Opera Festival (Italy), the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, VOCES8, Wells Cathedral Choir, Choir & Organ Magazine/The Choir of Royal Holloway, Kinetic Ensemble, The Wooster Symphony Orchestra, Houston Chamber Choir, Houston Children’s Chorus, the Yale Norfolk Summer Choral Festival, The University of Michigan Chamber Choir, Chorus Angelorum, The Benedict XVI Institute, Texas Tech University Choir, the Iowa State Singers, Vicennium Void, South Bend Chamber Singers, Musiqa of Houston, Da Camera Young Artist Program, Te Deum Chamber Choir, and the 2021 Musica Vera Festival in Toruń, Poland.

Performers of his work include the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), the Tokyo Cantat Festival (Japan), the Vancouver Chamber Choir (Canada), Ars Nova Coral da UFMG (Brazil), Le Madrigal de Lille (France), Ensemble à ContreVoix (Canada), the Polish Chamber Choir (Poland), Crakow Singers (Poland), Jauna Muzika (Lithuania), Polyphonic Voices (Australia), the Choir of Trinity College Melbourne (Australia), The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge (UK), The Choir of Royal Holloway (UK), the Houston Chamber Choir, Choral Arts Initiative, Third Millenium Ensemble, Rice University Campanile Orchestra, Coenobium Vocale and I Piccoli Musici (Italy), Indiana University NOTUS choir, the Donald Sinta Quartet, and many others.

Knaggs completed his doctorate in music composition (2017) at the Shepherd School of Music (Rice University) and his master’s degree in music composition at Bowling Green State University in 2009, and graduated in 2007 from the University of Michigan with bachelor’s degrees in voice performance and Spanish. His composition teachers include Bright Sheng, Marilyn Shrude, Karim Al-Zand, Pierre Jalbert, and Arthur Gottschalk, and Daniel has taken master-classes with William Bolcom, Chen Yi, David Lang, Stephen Hartke, and Sir James MacMillan. Daniel was a full-time Spanish teacher from 2009-2012 and has taught at the College of Wooster, Rice University, and Bowling Green State University and is now Artistic Director of the new Poland-based professional choir Ensemble Invocatio which he founded in 2022.