Daniel Shao was born in London in 1995, and currently studies with Kate Hill and Gitte Marcusson, while attending Oxford University. He has played in many masterclasses to Flautists such as Denis Bouriakov, Rachel Brown, Michael Cox, Gareth Davies, and Robert Winn.

 

Daniel has won prizes in National and International Competitions including 1st Prize at the British Flute Society Competition 'School Performer', 1st Prize at the International Award 'Carl Reinecke' in Italy (Junior Category) and 2nd Prize in the 'Ernest Bloch' International Competition. He was a Wind Finalist of BBC Young Musician 2014 and was the joint winner of the Felsenstein Leavers Award at the Purcell School.

 

Other prizes include Joint winner of the Nonclassical Record Label 'Battle of the bands', Newbury Young Musician of the Year, Gregynog Young Wind Player of the year, and 1st Prizes in the Oxford Philomusica and Brighton 'Springboard' Concerto Competitions.

 

Daniel has played concertos with orchestras including the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Philomusica, Amadeus Orchestra and Kingston Chamber Orchestra.

 

He often plays as an orchestral flautist including with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, enjoying playing regularly at the UK's top venues.

 

As a composer himself Daniel is extremely interested in new music, and has commissioned and premiered new pieces for Flute by young composers such as Kristina Arakelyan, Philip Dutton and Joshua Hagley. He has played in premieres of orchestral and chamber works by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Judith Weir.