Daniel Scoggins is a cellist based in New York City who enjoys a career of freelancing and teaching throughout the area. Praised for his sound that "soared easily” (New York Classical Review) and for his “outstanding solo work” (Harry Forbes), Daniel plays regularly with the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the New Jersey Festival Orchestra. Other recent engagements include concerts with Chatter PDX, Plymouth Friends of Chamber Music, Modus Operandi Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and solo performances with the Victor Herbert Renaissance Orchestra and the Village Light Opera Group. In the summers, Daniel is a member of the chamber music faculty at SummerTrios in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has taught at the Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii and Portland Summer Ensembles in Portland, Oregon. 

Daniel holds a Bachelor Degree in cello performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Darrett Adkins, and a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Julia Lichten and appeared 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. Daniel spent summers during his undergraduate years studying with Hans Jørgen Jensen at the Meadowmount School of Music. As an orchestral musician, Daniel has performed under the baton of renowned conductors including Michael Tilson-Thomas, Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, Leonard Slatkin and Timothy Weiss.

As an educator, Daniel worked for multiple summers at the Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he taught and performed as an orchestral teaching fellow alongside members of the Met Opera Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra. Daniel led music outreach days to rural Molokai and Oahu, where he provided free lessons and concerts for the community. In New York City, he frequently performs in teaching workshops with the Little Orchestra Society for elementary schoolers. 

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 in person and online. He has previously taught with Opportunity Music Project, Bronx Arts Ensembles, the Oberlin Community Music School, and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony.

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 manager 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.