Biography.

Daniel Peter Silcock is a Scottish pianist particularly active as a song accompanist. Noted as a ‘highly engaging musical partner’ (Seen and Heard International), recent seasons have seen Daniel perform at the world’s top music centres, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, and at Wigmore Hall in London, and alongside distinguished artists such as Dame Felicity Lott and Catherine Wyn-Rogers.

Daniel is a passionate recitalist and programmer. Recent programmes have been praised for ‘rapt and glowing performances’ (The Herald - Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs).

Daniel is a Samling Artist and a Britten-Pears Young Artist 2025-2026. In North America, Daniel was a Carnegie Hall SongStudio 2024 young artist, curated by Reneé Fleming; he was also an Art of Song fellow at Toronto Summer Music. Daniel is looking forward to an upcoming fellowship at the Cincinnati Song Initiative in May 2026. Alongside duo partner Ellen Mawhinney, Daniel is also delighted to have been selected as an Oxford Song Young Artist for 2026-2027.

In August 2025, Daniel launched ‘SongTide,’ a new festival for song in his hometown of Peterhead. Designed to engage a new audience in the North-East coast of Scotland with song and be a platform for emerging artists, Daniel is passionate about using ‘SongTide’ to showcase diverse voices in song and celebrate contemporary composers.

Daniel has recently played in festivals including Music at Paxton, the Petworth Festival, and the Zeist International Lied Festival in the Netherlands. Daniel accompanied the first recital given by the prestigious Royal Academy of Music Song Circle at the Institut Français UK in Chelsea, and curated a new ordering of Schubert’s Schwanengesang for Academy recitals given alongside the Glenn Gould School in Toronto.

Recent accompanist prizes include at the Bampton Classical Opera Competition, the Eastbourne Singing Competition, the Richard Leech Award, the Lewis Memorial Prize, and the International Lied Competition, Bolko von Hochberg, in Görlitz, Germany. Daniel was also a Schubert Institute UK Prize-winner as a Leeds Song Young Artist with duo partner Charles Cunliffe in 2023.

Other projects for Daniel include performances in India, including at the Royal Opera House, Mumbai, and recording ‘Freedom Cries Out,’ for Delphian alongside Samantha Crawford.

Daniel made his concerto debut at the age of 15 playing Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of David Danzmayr.

Daniel is currently on the Song Circle and Academy Voices fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Joseph Middleton and won all the major prizes for song accompaniment - including the Brenda Webb Accompanists’ Award, the Marjorie Thomas Art of Song Prize, and the Major Van Someren-Godfrey Prize. Daniel was also awarded an additional Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music for an outstanding final recital.

Daniel is sincerely thankful to Scottish trusts including the Dewar Arts Awards; the Caird Trust, and the Cross Trust, alongside Help Musicians for their generous support of his studies.