Paul Daniel

Paul Daniel is an English conductor who began to come to the fore in the 1990s and is particularly noted for performances and recordings of British music.

As a boy he sang in the choir of Coventry Cathedral, where he received musical training. He attended King's College, Cambridge where he studied music. After graduation he went on to learn conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where his teachers included Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Edward Downs.

In 1982, he received a position on the musical staff of the English National Opera, remaining there until 1987. He also became the Music Director of Opera Factory.

In 1990, he left Opera Factory to become Musical Director of Opera North and Principal Conductor of the English Northern Philharmonia. He attracted attention widely for his ability to find and bring to the stage worthwhile operas that had never entered the repertory and for his support for newer repertory.

In 1997, he was appointed Music Director of the English National Opera, where he has continued those innovative policies.

On records he is noted for a series of the complete orchestral works of Sir William Walton on the Naxos label. Naxos 8.553344 won the Gramophone Editor's Choice Award with his performances of Walton works including the Spitfire Prelude and Fugue.

Naxos chose him to lead the 2000th release on that label, the first budget-price recording of Anthony Payne's completion of Sir Edward Elgar's Third Symphony, with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The disc was also the first Naxos release engineered by the highly-regarded recordist Tony Faulkner.