Daniel Carpenter

Daniel Carpenter is an electric guitarist and contemporary classical composer from Birmingham, UK currently pursuing a PhD in Musical Composition at the University of Birmingham. His primary research and compositional interests involve the creation and codification of electric guitar repertoire within contemporary classical music, and so in his works, he explores the electric guitar in the kind of detail that only a truly skilled electric guitarist can, pushing the technical and sonic limits of the electric guitar in many environments, including orchestral and chamber music, and in solo pieces and duets. His musical influences are broad, covering a range of classical and popular musics, with a particular love for Takemitsu, Debussy, Ichika Nito, and popular electric guitar repertoire spanning from the 1970s to the present day. While he is in the early stages of his compositional career, his music can be characterised by his use of ambiguous, floating tonalities, vast chords, and by the sardonic and sometimes aggressive edge that these pieces bear, which he hopes will allow him to affect and connect with audiences on a truly visceral level. A truly ambitious composer, aiming to enrich the field of contemporary classical music and provide opportunities for future electric guitarists with virtuosic and deeply considered contemporary classical electric guitar repertoire.