Born in Mannheim, studied with Hans Zender, Isabel Mundry and Bernhard Kontarsky at the HfMDK Frankfurt. Awards include the Stuttgart Composition Prize twice (1998, 2009), the BMW Composition Prize of BR’s musica viva (2003), the Paul Hindemith Composition Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (2013). Scholarship holder of numerous organizations, such as the Villa Aurora Los-Angeles/Berlin, Weimar scholarship holder, scholarship holder of the cultural foundations of Saxony and Baden-Württemberg and the Heinrich Strobel Foundation of SWR. Busoni Prize of the Akademie der Künste Berlin, Tonali Composition Prize (2013), nomination for the German Music Authors’ Prize (2019).
Daniel Smutny has worked as artistic director for various institutions such as MDR Leipzig, Festspielhaus Hellerau and Staatstheater Stuttgart. He has held teaching positions for music theory and performative music as well as professorships for composition (HfM Detmold, Hfk Bremen).
A portrait CD was published by the German Music Council in the series Edition Zeitgenössische Musik (2009). Texts on music have appeared in the magazines Seiltanz, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, NMZ and MusikTexte, radio and television broadcasts on SWR, MDR and BR.
His first music theater Ferne Nähe premiered in 2011 as a work commissioned by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. Works have been performed in Germany and abroad, including at the Dresden Semperoper, the Stuttgart State Opera, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the ECLAT Festival, the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the Donaueschingen Music Days, BR’s musica viva, WDR’s Musik der Zeit, the Ultraschallfestival Berlin and the Schwetzinger Schlossfestspiele. Important interpreters of Daniel Smutny’s music include the Klangforum Wien, the Ensemble Modern, the SWR Vokalensemble and Symphony Orchestra and the piano duo Tal & Groethuysen.
The complete works are published by Sikorski / Boosey & Hawkes.