Still only in her early thirties, over the past decade Dani Howard has established her name in the UK and internationally with a series of impressive, vibrant works. Performances and commissions have come thick and fast from orchestras like the BSO, London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Symphony Orchestral, the Royal Liverpool and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, and as well as from Classic FM and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Abroad, performances have been given, for instance, by the Swedish Royal Stockholm and Gävle Symphony Orchestras, and the Finnish Kuopio Symphony Orchestra.

Conductors of her music include Mark Wigglesworth, Chloé Van Soeterstède, Domingo Hindoyan, Vasily Petrenko, Dalia Stasevska, Kazuki Yamada, Elim Chan and Sofi Jeannin. Her talents have been recognised by several awards, notably the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. She has been resident composer with the London Chamber Orchestra, and resident artist with the National Youth Orchestra, which included writing a large-scale work for the Proms with some 260 performers. She launched the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s new Celebrated Composer initiative in the 2025/26 Concert Season.

Born in Hong Kong in 1993, Dani spent her childhood and teenage years there before studying composition at the Royal College of Music with Jonathan Cole and gaining a first-class degree. A breakthrough orchestral work was Argentum (2017), composed for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which subsequently led to a close relationship between Dani and the orchestra including the commissioning and premiering of Coalescence (2019) and her Trombone Concerto (2021), written for former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Peter Moore. Indeed, Dani relishes composing works with particular artists in mind which has continued with a Percussion Concerto for Evelyn Glennie (2024), and Saxophone Concerto (2023-4) for Jess Gillam (its UK premiere being given by the BSO, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth this November). There’s also a solo percussion piece, Vasa (2025) for Colin Currie, Continuum (2024) for trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, and You Don’t Have to Tell me Twice (2024) for guitarist Jack Hancher.

Other orchestral works of this outstanding decade include another work featured as part of Dani’s residency with the BSO – The Butterfly Effect (2022). These years when Dani’s reputation has been steadily growing also witnessed her flair for opera with two commissions from The Opera Story: Robin Hood (2019) premiered in Peckham, and The Yellow Wallpaper (2023), first performed at the Copenhagen Opera Festival and subsequently at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Both operas garnered glowing reviews hailing her instinctive dramatic gifts for the genre. Among her choral works is Unbound (2012), commissioned and composed for The Marian Consort, who also recorded it.

Another characteristic of Dani’s work as a composer is a desire to collaborate with artists of other disciplines which resulted in her working with dancers, film-makers and architects. An example is her 2021 sound-installation, which still stands as an hour-long soundtrack and audio-guide in Barcelona’s Casa Batlló. Through her music, she comments, ‘I aimed to transmit the beauty Anton Gaudi created in the different rooms of his Casa Batlló building’. The score was recorded by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsch Opera, Berlin, conducted by Pablo Urbina.


Dani composed a Cello Concerto (2026), titled Maverick, for Richard Bamping and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. It recievered is premiere in May 2026 in Hong Kong, with Bamping as soloist, conducted by Michael Sanderling. Bamping, the orchestra’s principal cello, taught her the instrument from the age of 10, and became an important mentor to her during her teenage years. Creating this new work for him is, she explains, ‘an exceptionally special project, since it explores the idea of mentorship, as well as finding your own sense of identity’.

In July, Dani’s previous work for brass quintet, Quartz (2025), was premiered by Onyx Brass at JAM on the Marsh Festival, Kent, and another recent chamber work, Unraveled (2025) for piano trio, commissioned by the Presteigne Festival and Music in the Round, received its premiere by the Leonore Trio in August at the Presteigne Festival. Two other of her extant works were also performed at the festival, Symmetry (2016) for two violins and Add Oil (2022) for solo cello.

Much more can be found out about Dani’s music via her website and in addition, a perfect introduction to her orchestral works is her calling card first orchestral album by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic released on the RUBICON label last year which includes the Trombone Concerto, Argentum and Coalescence. In her notes for the disc, she explains that after an initial daunting fear, ‘I absolutely fell in love with writing for orchestra and, in particular, large orchestral performances. No other combination of instruments can give you the scope and possibilities for exploring new textures and sound worlds, and this I find so exciting and limitless.’