About

Protean

It is a word that describes an individual that changes frequently, and more importantly, with passion and versatility.  In the world of music this applies to a person who seeks to bring creativity and beauty to all things, someone like Daniel Schnee. An ethnomusicologist, writer, quarter-tone saxophonist, drummer, and graphic score composer, Daniel is also a former student of Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winning jazz icon Ornette Coleman, nay flautist Dr. Ali Racy, and India’s first master of Carnatic music on the saxophone, Sri Kadri Gopalnath. This diversity and depth of knowledge has led to Daniel’s work being performed, exhibited, or published in 23 countries, working with twenty-three different JUNO and Grammy Award winning musicians, and giving a TEDx Talk on the subject of Cognition As Music.

Saxophone and Percussion

Beginning his performing career at age 10 in central Saskatchewan polka bands, Daniel learned the value of a great melody and rhythmic syncopation, which would serve him well later on supporting jazz masters such as Tommy Banks, Slide Hampton, Ron Westray, Matt Brubeck, Archie Alleyne, Mike Murley, and P. J. Perry. This focus on melody and rhythm would also lead him to work with pop and rock stars such as Canadian legends PRISM, former Men At Work lead singer Colin Hay, Donna Presley (cousin of Elvis), Alfie Zappacosta, INXS, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and many others. Daniel’s extended studies in the traditional music of Japan, India, and the Middle East would also lead to performances with noted artists such as oud masters Simon Shaheen (Sting) and Naser Musa (Beyonce), Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo, Peter Golightly (choreographer for noted Japanese dance collective Dumb Type), legendary abstract artist Shozo Shimamoto, Egyptian Sufi singer Mohamed Al-Helbawy, Indigenous (Dene) singer Leela Gilday, as well as becoming the first foreigner to be given permission to study and perform with the Ikuta Jinja (Shinto Shrine) Gagaku Orchestra in Kobe, Japan. When not performing Daniel has also done live sound engineering, most notably for legendary folk singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliot (Grammy Award for both Best Traditional Folk, and Best Traditional Blues albums). 

Writing

Daniel is both an academic and commercial writer, featured in such publications as Dancecult, The Encyclopedia of Youth Cultures in America, Canadian Musician, and others. His Ph.D. dissertation DHARMA NOISE (York University, 2013) explored both theoretical and practical approaches to the study of free improvisation, and its relationship with aesthetic concepts from Zen Buddhism. He is also a published cartoonist, and former socio-political columnist for The Medicine Hat News.

Daniel’s protean instincts include language as well. Thus, Daniel has advanced certification in Japanese, as well as speaks Tagalog and German. 

Scores/Art

Daniel is a graphic score composer, whose musical scores resemble abstract art. Due to this feature his work has been performed, exhibited, or published internationally, in such countries as Vietnam, Iceland, Norway, Israel, Poland, and elsewhere. Various galleries and performance spaces include Watercock Live Jazz Club (Seoul), the Museum of The Moving Image (New York City), PS2 Performance Space (Belfast), Seton Art Gallery (University of New Haven), KyoRyuKan Hall (Kyoto), MÜSZI Cultural Space (Budapest), Theocharakis Foundation Hall (Athens), and others. His work was also included in NOTATIONS 21, the sequel to Notations,  composer John Cage’s landmark anthology of graphic score composers, and is often mentioned alongside the works of Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, and others. 

Academia

Daniel holds several degrees, including both a Masters and Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology (focus on East Asia), a Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies, a Performance Diploma in Jazz Saxophone, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. He has taught courses, or given talks and lectures in a wide variety of settings: The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (Jerusalem), high schools across Amagasaki and Itami City (Japan), the Canadian Center For Ethnomusicology, the Leeds International Jazz Conference (UK), Seoul Jazz Academy (Jongro-ku), the Icelandic Musician’s College, the Morton James Public Library (Nebraska City), and in university social science or cultural studies courses across Canada. 

His writing and graphic scores are often cited in undergraduate papers around the world, as well as in educational resources published by The Royal Conservatory of Music and Royal Albert Hall (London), major publications such as Maria Golia’s Ornette Coleman: The Territory and The Adventure (Reaktion Books: 2020) and The New York Times, as well as NPR Radio’s Music Online. 

He has also created multiphonic charts for the saxophone, and quarter-tone charts as well, which have been used by MENAME (the University of Alberta’s Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble), the Berklee College World Music Ensemble (Boston), and individual musicians around the world.