Daniel Velasco is an award winning flutist whose "standout" and "vibrant" performances (Miami Herald) have taken him around the country and abroad. He is the first prize winner of the National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition, WAMSO Minnesota Orchestra Competition, MTNA Young Artist Competition, Claude Monteux Flute Competition, second prize winner of the William C. Byrd Competition and finalist at the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh International Competition.
He has soloed with the Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador, Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra, Luciano Carrera Chamber Orchestra and has been featured as a guest performer at the Schubert Club Series in Saint Paul, the Indy Flute Festival in Indianapolis, the Middle Tennessee Flute Festival in Nashville, the University or North Florida, the Florida Flute Association Convention, the Festival Internacional de Flautistas en la Mitad del Mundo, and the National Flute Association Conventions in Kansas City, New Orleans, and Chicago.
Orchestral festivals include the Latin American Youth Orchestra, Chautauqua Music Festival, Orchestra de la Francophonie, Utah Festival Opera, as well as tours through Chile and Central America with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He has performed under Carlos Prieto, Gustavo Dudamel, Claudio Abbado, Ben Zander, Jean-Philippe Tremblay, Jacomo Bairos, Ramón Tebar, Cristian Macelaru, Carl St. Clair, and others.
An active freelancer, he was a member of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Philharmonic, Florida Grand Opera Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, Boca Sinfonia, and is a founding member of the Miami-based NuDeco Ensemble. His main teachers include Angeleita Floyd, Marianne Gedigian, Amy Porter and Trudy Kane.
Velasco earned a doctoral degree from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Northern Iowa. He was recently appointed to the faculty at The University of Akron and is also a Yamaha performing artist.
