Daniel Lentz (born March 10, 1942, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, United States) is an American composer [1] and artist.
Lentz achieved notability as a musician while a student at St. Vincent College[2] and at Brandeis University, when he was awarded a fellowship in composition at Tanglewood in the summer of 1966.[3] 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 in 1968. 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.[4]
In 1972, Lentz was the first American to win the Gaudeamus International Composers Award.[5] Since then, he has won a number of other awards and grants.[4] Lentz then formed and led another music ensemble, the San Andreas Fault, which made several tours of the North America and Europe performing Missa Umbrarum (Mass of Shadows) (1973) amongst other works,[6] 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 creates acrylic sculptures notably his Illuminated Manuscript series.,[7] which are three-dimensional realisations (i.e. the score) of a recorded musical work by Lentz that accompanies each.
According to family lore, Lentz is of partial Seneca heritage through one of his great-grandmothers.[8][9] His O-ke-wah (North American Eclipse), 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.[10]
He has a daughter from his first marriage and now lives in Southern California.
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