About
Daniel Szefer, 26, is a first-generation Polish-American. At the age of seven, he began his first piano lessons and was introduced to the public in Miami, FL, by the Chopin Foundation of the United States when he was ten. He was a top prize winner at the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition, a finalist and prize-winner at the Prix Orford Musique, and, in March 2018, was the winner of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition.
Szefer was one of eight international students invited to study at the Sergei Babayan Academy at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2012. The same year, he gave a solo concert at the Chicago Symphony Center. He had his orchestral debut with the Lira Ensemble Orchestra conducted by Mina Zikri at the age of 13 and would concertize with this orchestra for the next three years.
In 2014, he was a Fellow at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and one of two Americans who participated in the 8th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Moscow, Russia. Szefer had his Chicago Symphony Center orchestral debut with the Paderewski Symphony Orchestra in November 2015.
Szefer is an active chamber musician and was a member of the Walden Trio, a piano trio formed in 2016 at the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, AB. As a part of Walden, he has performed throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Norway. In May 2018, the group competed at the 45th Fischoff Chamber Competition in South Bend, Indiana. Later that summer, they participated in the first Festival del Lago in Ajijic, Mexico. Walden attended the Trondheim International Chamber Academy in Norway and had the opportunity to collaborate with Asbjørn Nørgaard, violist of the Danish String Quartet, and work under musicians from the group Stockholm Syndrome and Joseph Kalichstein. He has performed with artists such as Desmond Hoebig and Andrés Cárdenes.
During his time in Calgary, Daniel spent three years in Calgary Pro Musica’s Young Artist Development Program. As a member of the program, he has visited elementary schools throughout the city, delivering music education workshops and assemblies that focus on literacy and appreciation.
In February 2020, he performed Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 with the Calgary Philharmonic and Karl Hirzer at their PhilKids Benefit concert. That same month, he was a Quarter-Finalist in the National Chopin Competition in Miami, FL.
Most recently, Szefer was a semi-finalist in the 67th Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition and was awarded the Szymanowski Prize for the best performance of a Work by Karol Szymanowski. In May, he was a winner of the 2022 Evanston Music Club Scholarship Competition.
He has had masterclasses under artists such as Rafal Blechacz, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Robert McDonald, Garrick Ohlsson, Dang Thai Son, Dame Fanny Waterman, and others.
Szefer graduated from the University of Calgary, where he studied under Prof. Krzysztof Jablonski. He received his Master of Music in Piano Performance at Northwestern University, where he was awarded Program Honors, studying under Prof. James Giles.
Szefer has advocated for equitable access to music education and further pursued this goal by becoming a 2023 corps member in Teach for America, where he taught at Victory College Prep in Indianapolis, IN.
Contact
szeferpiano@gmail.com