Daniel Scoggins is a cellist, teacher, and grant-writer based in New York City who enjoys a career of freelancing and teaching throughout the area. Recent performances include concerts with the New World Symphony, the New Jersey Festival Orchestra as principal cellist, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Plymouth Friends of Chamber Music, and an appearance as a soloist with the Manhattan School of Music orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, performing Benjamin Lee’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.

As an orchestral musician, Daniel has performed under conductors such as Michael Tilson-Thomas, Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, Leonard Slatkin and Timothy Weiss. Daniel is currently a substitute cellist for the New World Symphony and Symphony in C.

Daniel holds a Master’s degree in cello performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Julia Lichten, as well as a B.M. in cello performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Darrett Adkins. Additionally, Daniel spent multiple summers studying with Hans Jørgen Jensen at the Meadowmount School of Music.

Daniel has a passion for teaching and enjoys helping his students to discover a love of music and a physically conscious approach to performing. Daniel currently teaches his own studio and online with Virtu.Academy. He has previously taught with Opportunity Music Project, Bronx Arts Ensembles, the Oberlin Community Music School, and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Daniel was honored to work as a faculty member at the 2022 Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he taught and performed as an orchestral teaching fellow alongside members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra, and helped to lead outreach days to rural Molokai and Oahu, providing free lessons and concerts for the community.

Outside of his cello life, Daniel has also had a lifelong interest in helping to make the classical music world run. He currently works part-time as a grant writer and development assistant for Young Concert Artists, worked remotely as an Artistic Planning Intern with the National Orchestral Institute while completing his master’s degree in cello performance, and has for years written grant applications for classical music nonprofits around the country.