Concertmaster, Danielle Maddon

Violinist Danielle Maddon is well known to New England audiences for her vibrant playing and broad experience as a soloist, concertmaster, recitalist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Performing on both modern and period instruments, Ms. Maddon has appeared in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Barbican in London, Vatican City, and Tokyo's Suntory Hall, in repertoire spanning four centuries. Critics have hailed her playing as "magnificent", "stunning", "masterful", and "heartfelt". In the Boston area, she performs with Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, the Boston Pops, the Boston Musica Viva, Cantata Singers, the Boston Cecelia, Aston Magna, and other ensembles.

Dani was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate at Texas Christian University, then graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Master's degree in Violin Performance at Ohio University. After a 2- year engagement as a first violinist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, she returned to the U.S. for post-graduate performance studies at Boston University with renowned violinist Raphael Druian. At BU, she was Concertmaster of the Symphony, Chamber, and Opera orchestras, and studied chamber music with coaches Raphael Hillyer, Eugene Lehner, and the Muir String Quartet. Dani was awarded twice- won fellowships to both the Tanglewood Music Center and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, where she held Concertmaster positions with Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson-Thomas, and Sir Charles Grove. She toured and performed frequently with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Handel and Haydn Society with Christopher Hogwood, and was Concertmaster of the Tallahassee Symphony under conductor David Hoose.

As Concertmaster and soloist for the New England Philharmonic under Richard Pittman, she has enjoyed performing the rich repertoire of violin concertos by modern masters including Berg, Harbison, Dutilleux, and Lutoslawski. These annual endeavors include premieres of new violin concertos written for her by composers Bernard Hoffer, Andy Vores, and David Rakowski. Just before the pandemic shut down live concerts, Dani and the New England Philharmonic were delighted to present the premiere of Bernard Hoffer’s new violin concerto, “Decapod,” also written for her, in a concert at Jordan Hall.

During the pandemic, Dani led weekly Zoom sessions with the NEP String sections to both maintain technical and musical skills, and to preserve and engage the unique team spirit of the NEP strings in preparation for eventual re-opening.

As founder of the NEP Chamber Players, Dani creates and leads programs exploring the remarkable connections among the musical and visual arts, including concerts for the Peabody Essex Museum, the Boston Athenaeum, the Cape Ann Museum, and the Boston Children’s Museum. With the NEP’s Composer-in-Residence, Eric Nathan, Dani co-created and co-hosted the NEP’s series on Youtube, “Listening In,” featuring interviews with and detailed explorations into the music of composers TJ Cole, Bernard Rands, Eric Nathan, and Sofia Rocha.

Recent projects include an NEP String Quartet virtual concert of music from the “Listening In” series, which was taped in late August 2021, and the premiere of Bernard Hoffer's new film score for Buster Keaton's silent film comedy, "Sherlock, Jr." performed by the NEP Chamber Players at the Boston Athenaeum on November 4, 2021.