Here we take a look at the British composer, Dani Howard. Her new work for 300 musicians is premiered by the National Youth Orchestra at the BBC Proms 2024 in London’s Royal Albert Hall on 10 August. Her first piece for professional symphony orchestra, Argentum (2017), is also performed at the 2024 CBeebies Ocean Adventure Proms at Bristol Beacon on 26 August.
Who is Dani Howard?
Dani Howard is a British composer with an impressive list of commissions from ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC orchestras.
Her debut album of orchestral works, containing her RPS Award-winning Trombone Concerto, is out on Rubicon. She has recently been appointed artist-in-residence with the National Youth Orchestra.
How old is Dani Howard?
Dani Howard was born in 1993, and is 31 years old.
Where is Dani Howard from?
Howard was born in Hong Kong, where she attended the South Island School. She later studied composition at the Royal College of Music in London (2011-15) with Jonathan Cole.
‘I didn’t realise you could actually study composing, but once I found out, I applied to conservatoires in the UK at 16, and started at the Royal College of Music in London, aged 17,’ she says.
What instruments does she play?
In June 2024, we interviewed Dani Howard for BBC Music Magazine. She described learning musical instruments as a child and into her teens:
‘When I was young, I wanted to hit things! At five I demanded to learn the drums at school and eventually, after a year of lessons, my parents bought me a drum kit. Considering we lived in an apartment in Hong Kong, that was good of them. I loved playing drums and making up songs, but my mother thought it would be a good idea for me and my siblings to learn the piano. I had a wonderful teacher, Anne Grady, but I couldn’t get excited about the piano.
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‘Once I started learning cello [at the age of 10] with Richard Bamping it changed my life. He was principal cello of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In the eight years I studied with him, he opened my mind to classical music.
‘I was 15 or 16 when he played me Britten’s Cello Suite No. 1, which opens with all those double stops. Something opened up in my mind and my ears. That contemporary soundworld felt fresh and exciting.
‘I studied Brahms’s Cello Sonata in E minor and I remember spending three hours with Richard on the first two bars. By the end I could play all the notes, but he said, “You know, you won’t be able to play this piece until you’re in love.” I think he was right, and the experience of working on the piece with him taught me so much about depth.’
Who are Dani Howard’s favourite composers?
‘In my first year [at the Royal College of Music] we looked at a movement of Tavener’s The Protecting Veil. I was so entranced that I downloaded it immediately,’ she says, ‘and I remember leaving the RCM, sitting in Hyde Park and listening to the whole 40 minutes.
‘I do feel like a British composer, but I love the freshness of American music. My favourite living composer is Mason Bates, who has written a 21st-century Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra called Philharmonia Fantastique. This has been turned into an animated film by the Pixar team. I also love Nico Muhly’s work. It can be so hard to create an identity as a composer, but these two composers have such distinct styles they are immediately recognisable.’
What made Howard want to be a composer?
‘I watched my cello teacher perform Strauss’s Don Quixote with the Hong Kong Phil and that was the piece that got me really engaged with orchestral writing,’ she says. ‘I wanted to see the score and find out how Strauss was creating that sound. He has inspired me by showing the possibilities of the orchestral palette.
‘I love writing for orchestra, but I was terrified of it for years. So I didn’t write a single orchestral piece for the whole of my university degree – I managed to avoid it by doing a piece for 24 percussionists instead. When I got my first orchestral commission, it was something I couldn’t turn down. And I realised, “Wow, this is special.” It’s so unlimited and satisfying, I don’t think I could ever run out of ideas.
‘But I do need to have something to write about. I have tried composing without and it’s not satisfying; it doesn’t have a purpose for me. Inspiration can be anything – it can be a video I’ve watched or a sculpture I’ve seen. One piece I’ve done is about the building of a spider’s web. When I saw it being made, I sat for two hours watching it.’
A new work by Dani Howard premieres at the Proms 2024
‘I’ve just started a residency with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and it’s a blast to be engaging with their projects – not just for the musicians in the orchestra but also the work they are doing in schools and communities,’ says Howard. ‘One of the highlights will be writing a huge piece for 300 musicians to play at the BBC Proms – 160 on stage and the others positioned around the Royal Albert Hall!’