Daniel Corral (composer)

Daniel Corral (born 1981) is a Filipino-American composer and musician.

Biography

Corral was born in Eagle River, Alaska, United States, in 1981. Corral went to Los Angeles in 2005 as a percussionist/composer. He holds an M.F.A. in music from the California Institute of the Arts (2007) and a B.M. from the University of Puget Sound (2004). While at Calarts he studied composition with Anne LeBaron and James Tenney. His musical voice finds outlet in puppet operas,^[1][2] accordion orchestras,^[3] handmade music boxes, player pianos,^[4] electronic collages, site-specific installations, chamber music,^[5] and interdisciplinary collaborations.

The Los Angeles Times described the premiere at Zipper Hall of his Sigils for solo piano as "the recital's strongest piece. Sigils boasts a fascinating -- and somewhat split -- personality, with its mixtures of rhythmic data-dancing systems and more visceral, clustered fistfuls-of-notes, hazy keyboard cloud activity, and a deceptive 'resolving chord' (with a flatted second in the bass)".^[5]

His second puppet opera, Zoophilic Follies, premiered in September 2011 at REDCAT and featured Timur and the Dime Museum along with other musical guests.^[6][7] His first puppet opera, Le Petit Macabre, premiered in 2008 at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn as part of the Great Small Works Toy Theatre Festival.^[2] It was inspired by Gyorgy Ligeti's opera, Le Grand Macabre.

He also composes, arranges, and plays accordion/electronics in Timur and the Dime Museum, a music ensemble featuring operatic tenor Timur Bekbosunov, clarinetist Brian Walsh, violist Cassia Streb, guitarist Matthew Setzer, bassist David Tranchina, and drummer Andrew Lessman.