bio

Daniel Weltlinger is one of Australia's most unique and original musicians. Born in Sydney in 1977 and of French-Hungarian-Israeli Jewish heritage he is predominantly a violin player with an ear and an eye for a mix of Gypsy-Swing, East-European-Klezmer and Experimental music and is world-renowned for his distinctive sound and improvisational approach to these musical styles. His main Australian-based projects "The Asthmatix" and "Zohar¹s Nigun" fuse Jewish themes and kabbalistic-inspired improvisation within the contemporary framework of styles like Hip-Hop and Jazz while his collaborative efforts with the remarkable German-Sinti guitarist/composer Lulo Reinhardt fuses Latin, Jazz and Gypsy-Swing performing to audiences around the world. He frequently collaborates as a solo recording/performance artist with some of Australia's top musicians in a variety of different formats and is highly sought after both nationally and internationally for his technical and musical mastery over his main instrument.

Daniel's musical leanings can be largely attributed to his childhood having grown up in a highly artistic and chaotic albeit creative household in which from an early age he was inundated in a hugely eclectic assortment of different music including a lot of Classical and Opera, cartoon and film scores, Ella Fitzgerald, French chansons, Hebrew and Yiddish folk melodies (both at home and in synagogue and school) and Hungarian Gypsy music. His first and forever foremost major musical inspiration was his maternal grandfather - also a violinist - who had as a young man played in café orchestras in Marseilles mixing socially with the likes of Edith Piaf, Maurice Ravel and many other artists and musicians of that period. Daniel began the violin at the age of 5 and at 8 he commenced studies at the Preparatory Department, as part of The Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He performed extensively in youth orchestras and chamber music groups as well as in solo at many concerts and went on to complete a Bachelor of Music at the Conservatorium in 2001 majoring in Classical Performance (teachers included Janet Davies, Christopher Kimber and Wanda Wilkomirska). He also performed and toured in Australia and Europe in the Australian Youth Orchestra for several years, performing under world-renowned musicians such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pinchas Zukerman and Robert Spano.

During his early years of tertiary study Daniel began to experiment with improvised music which he had always had more than a passing interest in. In 1998 he co-founded aria-award winning Gypsy-Cabaret band "Monsieur Camembert" which he played and recorded with until 2000 and today occasionally guests with. To date musicians and ensembles Daniel has performed and/or recorded with amongst many others have included Nadya and her 101 Candles Orchestra, Fuego Lento, Ian and Nigel Date, Edouard Bronson, Buddy Bolden Revival Orchestra, On The Stoop, Menino, I Gitanos, Mike and Moro Reinhardt, Swing de Gitanes, Waiting For Guinness, Mic Conway¹s National Junk Band, Zero Hour, Glass, Swing Bien Sur, The Jews Brothers, Chris Tanner and Virus, Straightback Fellows, Peppermint T, Doch, Reuben Derrick, Oscar Jiminez, Bobby Singh, Slava Gregorian, Joseph Tawadros, Al Slavik, Ilan Kidron, STC Actor¹s Company, Belvoir Street Theatre Company, Theatre Of Image, Aerialise..

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" ..This is jungle tiger with five legs jazz...
...fantastic, fun and kooky as hell with wings..."
- Online review of performance at Space3

"...the magically-bowing violinist..."
-AJN

"...definitely a touch of Stephane Grappelli..."
- Sidmouth Herald (UK)