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The Argentinean pianist, Daniel Levy, began his musical studies at the age of six and studied under the renowned piano teachers Ana Gelber and Vincenzo Scaramuzza, whose pupils included Martha Argerich and Bruno Gelber. He won many national and international piano competitions, among them the ‘Jeunesses Musicales’ and the ‘Mozarteum’. Levy began his concert career at 17, performing in major concert halls and appearing on radio and television. At the same time, he commenced studies of philosophy and comparative religion. Having been awarded a grant from the Fundación Rocca, he attended specialist piano classes in Florence with Maria Tipo and chamber music classes in Venice with Sergio Lorenzi, at the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello. He developed a remarkable reputation as a soloist and as a chamber musician and met with outstanding success, both in terms of the public and critics. He continued to study chamber music with Roberto Michelucci, founder of “I Musici”, at the Conservatorio Cherubini in Florence.
Daniel Levy has drawn consistent praise from both critics and the public for the deep integrity and poetic sensibility that he transmits through his instrument. His ability to build an intimate connection with the audience through the ‘passionate thoughtfulness’ of his playing, has brought him International success both as a live performer and a recording artist. Levy continues to perform within the world’s most celebrated music venues and concert halls, alongside major symphony orchestras and carefully chosen collaborators who share his creative vision and dedication to the musical craft. His devotion to music led him to research sound in all its aspects and formed the basis of a distinguished career as an educator, presenting seminars, workshops, conferences and courses across Europe and America. He is the author of the pioneering book Euphony: The Sound of Life and co-founder of the International Academy of Euphony.
Daniel Levy was a founder of the Latin American branch of the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation (Berlin-Venice) in Buenos Aires. He also organised three international exhibitions of musical instruments -the first at the Royal Bank of Canada (1968), the second at the Centro Cultural San Martin (1970) and the third one at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (1972). These exhibitions were organised to showcase selections from the most important collections of ancient musical instruments from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe.
He was nominated as a member of the ASAM (Argentinean Association of Music Therapy), under the auspices of Dr. B. Quiros. As a professor of musical language, he taught music therapy at the University of the Social Museum. At the same time Levy continued his concert career whilst teaching courses on the relationship between music and philosophy. He also developed an artistic working relationship with the renowned Indian musician Ravi Shankar.
In 1973 Daniel Levy moved to Italy, where he was the general secretary of the International Institute of Comparative Musical Studies (UNESCO). Here he worked with the esteemed musicologist Alain Daniélou, undertaking research on music and sound in ancient Sanskrit manuscripts. He studied musical aesthetics and met with prominent musicians from many different traditions, speaking at conferences and giving courses at the Fondazione Cini, Biennale di Venezia, Festival de Royan, and many other European centres. Levy has also worked with the renowned musicologist Marius Schneider, author of the book The Meaning of Music.
In 1977 Daniel Levy founded ‘Ethos * Harmonic School of Venice’, with the purpose of promoting an integral transformation of the human being, through philosophical and artistic themes leading to the development of ‘intuition’. In 1983 he founded the ‘Planetarium of Arts’ in Venice as a consequence of the work carried out at ‘Ethos * Harmonic School of Venice’. He helped to diffuse a new vision on the function and role of music and of the musician, through a fervent educational activity that, for over 20 years, created festivals, concerts, exhibitions, master-classes, round-tables and publications.
In 1986 Daniel Levy published his first book, Euphony: The Sound of Life. As one critic aptly described it: ‘the book treats the essence of Sound, acoustics of the Self, the relationship of Sound and Space, Resonance, Vibration, Harmony and the experience of Self both in sound and, perhaps more importantly, in silence’. His second book, Eternal Beauty, published in Venice, was greeted favourably by both public and critics.
Daniel Levy recorded for RAI, Radio Suisse Romande, and Radio Svizzera Italiana, and produced five programmes dedicated to the world of sound. Levy has appeared on many covers of music magazines, including Fono Forum (Germany), Musicalia (Italy), Monsalvat and CD Compact (Spain), and In Tune (Japan). In 1989 he was invited by Nimbus Records to record a series of piano recordings of Robert Schumann’s piano works. At this time he started recording, a wide repertoire for Edelweiss Records, ranging from J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt to Grieg, Scriabin, Debussy, Ravel. Since then, he has recorded over 50 CD’s, transcending the traditional barriers of styles and genres, with recordings that range from J.S. Bach to Piazzolla’s original piano compositions. His ‘Piano Recital For Venice’ CD, with works by F. Liszt, F. Mendelssohn, Wagner, and F. Liszt / Wagner was awarded a prize by German critics and was a bestseller in Europe. Since 1993 Levy has lived in London, where he began a major project to record Robert Schumann’s complete piano and orchestral works, for the Edelweiss label. After the first two volumes were released, he came to be considered one of the greatest Robert Schumann interpreters in the world today.
As a result of extensive studies in the field of music therapy, he composed The Seven Tones of Balance, a series of pieces inspired by the musical theories of Pythagoras. The series was recorded by the Syntony label, in London. He recorded two outstanding CD’s with the celebrated baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, performing J. Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 and R. Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto. The latter CD was recorded in the Abbey Road Studios in London. He has recently recorded a CD dedicated to W.A. Mozart, J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (Volume 1 & 2) and the Art of the Fugue (BWV 1080).
Today, Daniel Levy performs in some of the most prestigious live venues in the world, including Royal Festival Hall (London), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Conservatoire de Genève (Geneva) and Salle Gaveau (Paris), alongside a number of carefully selected artists who share his creative vision and dedication to the musical craft. Key collaborators have included Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, thePhilharmonia Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Quartet, armina Quartet, the baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and the cellist Franco Maggio Ormezowski.
Daniel Levy presented The Sound of Life radio programme, in conjunction with Radio Nacional Clásica (Buenos Aires), and has achieved great success with an audience of listeners throughout Argentina.
Since 2005, Daniel Levy has been the Main Tutor of the European Union’s Socrates Grundtvig I ‘Euphony’ project. ‘Euphony’ is scheduled to be taught within some of Europe’s main Universities and cultural associations, with current partners based in the UK, Cyprus, Finland, Lithuania, Austria and Italy. At present, he is leading an initiative to educate Professors of Euphony, with the eventual purpose of disseminating the programme across the whole of Europe. He is the co-founder of the International Academy of Euphony, which is currently developing an intensive world-wide programme of educational and artistic activities, including ongoing courses, seminars, workshops, publications, exhibitions and concerts. He is currently embarking upon a series of seminars focused on educating people in the ‘Art of Listening - An Introduction to Euphony’, as a means to expanding our awareness of Sound in all its manifestations in order to improve human relationships at a personal and group level. He has recently been appointed to the post of artistic director of the Ascona Music Festival in Switzerland.
Levy continues his busy schedule, giving concerts, recording, conducting master-classes, and presenting lectures and seminars throughout the world.
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