Daniel Bates
Daniel Bates is principal oboe with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia and holds the oboe chair at Miss Saigon- the Cameron Mackintosh production at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End. He has also held the principal oboe position with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Sage, Gateshead. He has played guest principal for all the major UK orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the John Wilson Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields as well as various international orchestras such as the National Orchestra of Colombia and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. As a session musician he has recorded for various pop acts and films, including the Harry Potter franchise and for Barbra Streisand, Mary J Blige, Rihanna and Stevie Wonder. He has also played principal oboe with the Gabrieli Consort and Players and, on classical and romantic oboe, as principal with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, under the conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Mark Elder.
Born in London, Daniel was offered music scholarships to every music college in the country but chose to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He was then also awarded a music scholarship to study at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read Music and the History of Art.
When he was eighteen years of age he became the youngest ever winner of the Royal Overseas League Competition. This competition is one of the most prestigious in the world (it launched the careers of Jacqueline du Pre and John Lill, amongst others) and is open to all commonwealth musicians of age 30 and under. A few years later he also won two major international competitions, in Italy and Romania.
He has performed solo concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Brasov Filharmoica, the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the English Chamber Orchestra. Extensive solo recitals include venues such as the Wigmore Hall (on numerous occasions but perhaps most notably giving the premiere of a new work by Louis Andriessen), the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Usher Hall and the Purcell Room. Internationally, he has given solo recitals in venues such as the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and at various European festivals.