Daniel Mason

Violinist Daniel Mason has concertized widely in the United States and Europe, gaining wide recognition both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. His activities have included live national radio broadcasts from WFMT in Chicago, frequent appearances on NPR’s Performance Today and performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington. A member of the Jascha Heifetz Master Class at the University of Southern California for three years, he has degrees from the Ohio State University and the University of Southern California.

Mr. Mason is currently in his twentieth year as Professor of Violin and Head of the String Department at the University of Kentucky. He is concertmaster of and frequent soloist with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also, for seventeen years, concertmaster of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, appearing many times in a solo role.

Mr. Mason has just completed a series of master classes and performances in Korea and China, appearing as soloist with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he appeared as soloist with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchesta in Ravel’s Tzigane and Vaughn-Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante Mr. Mason’s travels while performing recitals and giving master-classes have taken him to Austria, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, and the Republic of Georgia. In March, 1996 he played the premiere in Vienna of a solo work written for him by composer Alexander Blechinger. His performance of the work is included on a CD recently released in Vienna.

An enthusiastic advocate of recent music, Mr. Mason has recorded a CD of chamber music by noted American composer Joel Hoffman released by Gasparo Records. He has performed the music of many other composers, working in consultation with them, including John Cage, David Amram, Wiliam Bolcom, Bernard Rands and Joseph Baber.

In summer 2001, Mason appeared in Florence, Italy with the Leonore Quartet playing in the Galleria Accademica. Last summer he was a member of the faculty of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music-sponsored Opera and Music Festival of Lucca

He also directs the University of Kentucky String Project, which trains string teachers while providing affordable instruction to more than 100 area children.

Professor Mason’s students have won positions in the Chicago Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, Cedar Rapids Symphony and others, as well as teaching positions at universities around the nation.

When time permits, Mr. Mason heads for the mountains for excursions such as a recent traverse of the entire Sierra Nevada range in California, including the summit of Mt. Whitney.