Daniel Lentz


Daniel Lentz was an American classical composer, musician and artist.

Life and career

Lentz was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on March 10, 1942. He achieved notability as a musician while a student at St. Vincent College and at Brandeis University, when he was awarded a fellowship in composition at Tanglewood in the summer of 1966. This was followed by a Fulbright Fellowship in Electronic Music in 1967–68, which was completed in Stockholm, Sweden. He then became a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1968 to 1970. In 1970 he focused more on composing and performing. At this time he also formed a music ensemble, the California Time Machine, which toured North America and Europe.
In 1972, Lentz was the first American to win the Gaudeamus International Composers Award. Later, he won a number of other awards and grants. Lentz then formed and led another music ensemble, the San Andreas Fault, which made several tours of North America and Europe performing Missa Umbrarum amongst other works, and released several recordings in Europe. Returning to California, Lentz formed the Daniel Lentz Group in Los Angeles. This ensemble has toured much of the world and has released a number of recordings. His 1987 album The Crack in the Bell was the first contemporary classical release from Angel/EMI Records.
As an artist Lentz created acrylic sculptures notably his Illuminated Manuscript series., which are three-dimensional realisations of a recorded musical work by Lentz that accompanies each.
According to family lore, Lentz was of partial Seneca heritage through one of his great-grandmothers. His O-ke-wah , a composition for 12 voices, drum, bone rasps, and bells whose first version was written in 1974, is based on a traditional Seneca ritual dance for the dead.
Lentz had a daughter from his first marriage and lived in Southern California. He died on July 25, 2025, at the age of 83.

Grants, fellowships, and awards

  • Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center, Italy, Music Composition, 2012
  • Opus Archives, Pacifica Institute, Music Composition, 2010
  • Phoenix Arts Commission Grant, Music Composition, 2000
  • 2 Arizona Commission In The Arts Grants, Music Composition, 1992, 1997
  • 3 Institute For Studies In The Arts Grants, Arizona State University, Music Composition, 1993, 1995, 1996
  • 5 National Endowment For The Arts Grants, Music Composition, 1973–96
  • D.A.A.D Grant, Music Composition And Research, Berlin, Germany, 1979–80
  • 3 Seed Fund Grants, New York, Music Composition, 1976, 1978, 1980
  • California Arts Council Grant, Music Composition, 1976
  • Howard Foundation Grant, Brown University, Music Composition, 1974
  • First Prize, International Composers Competition, Stichting Gaudeamus, Holland, 1972
  • Creative Arts Institute Award, University Of California, Berkeley, 1969
  • Fulbright Fellowship, Sweden, Electronic Music And Musicology, 1967–68
  • Samuel Wechsler Music Award, Brandeis University, 1967
  • Tanglewood Composition Fellowship, 1966
  • N.D.E.A. Fellowship-Scholarship, Brandeis University, 1965–67
  • Teaching Fellowship, Ohio University, 1962–65

    Discography

  • In a Word
  • Ending
  • River of 1,000 Streams
  • In the Sea of Ionia
  • Voices
  • Wild Turkeys
  • wolfMASS
  • Point Conception,
  • Huit ou Neuf Pieces Dorées à Point
  • Collection
  • Self Portrait
  • Butterfly Blood
  • Missa Umbrarum
  • Portraits - with John Adams, Paul Dresher, Ingram Marshall, and Stephen Scott
  • Apologetica
  • b.e.comings
  • Walk into My Voice - with Harold Budd and Jessica Karraker
  • Music for 3 Pianos - with Harold Budd and Ruben Garcia
  • The Crack in the Bell
  • On The Leopard Altar
  • After Images
  • Spell
  • Dancing on Water - contains Celli, with Peter Garland, Rick Cox, Jim Fox and others,
  • Cold Blue anthology - contains You Can't See the Forest... Music, with Ingram Marshall, Chas Smith, Harold Budd, Michael Byron, Jim Fox, and others
  • Cold Blue Two - contains Celli, with Ingram Marshall, Chas Smith, Gavin Bryars, Jim Fox, and others
  • ''Los Tigres de Marte''