Having graduated at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Daniel carried on with his musical studies in the Amsterdam Conservatory where he received a masters degree first in jazz-saxophone with the highest grade then the same degree in film-music.

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Among others Daniel arranged for the world's largest professional pop and jazz orchestra, the Metropole Orkest (Todd Rundgren project, Karsu Dönmez), the opera singer Boldizsár László and Erika Miklósi, the soul singer Vera Tóth, the Pannonia Allstars Ska Orchestra. He arranged and composed music for the Modern Art Orchestra (Budapest), the Budapest FourBones trombone quartet and the Budapest Jazz Orchestra. He scored numerous NFTA (Dutch Film and Television Academy) film-projects, and was the Dutch film-composer Jasper Boeke’s  orchestrator-assistant for the series Het Gordijnpaleis van Ollie Hartmoed, the documentary Holland Welvaren and the feature film &me​. Daniel scored short-films, documentaries and advertisements. 

 

Besides writing music, Daniel is an active saxophonist and clarinetist both on the international and the Hungarian musical scene. ​

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Born in Budapest Daniel got a solid classical musical education on guitar and clarinet, and in music theory. Already at his early years he won numerous competitions for children. Later he turned to jazz-saxophone and film-music. His strong education in both classical music and jazz, his wide range of interest and experience as a musician in numerous kinds of music enabled him to develop his rich compositional vocabulary.

 



Prices, awards, scholarships

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2012 - The film The Club of Ugly Children - nominated for best music at the Eindhovens Film Festival

2011 – Daniel Mester Quartet – winner of the Keep an Eye jazz award, Amsterdam

2011 – Selected for the prestigious Huygens Scholarship
2010 – One of the three selected Hungarian jazz artists for the Lakatos Ablakos Dezső scholarship
2009 – Winner of the Hungarian Jazz Composition Competition with his piece entitled Odds
2009 – Selected to the Metropole Orkest International Arranger Workshop, Amsterdam
2007 – Barga Jazz Festival (Italy) – Oláh Szabolcs Quartet – Best Jazz Group, Daniel Mester – best soloist
2007 – Michael Brecker International Jazz Arranging Competition, USA – among the first three winners with „honourable mention”

Diplomas

Composing for Film - masters degree (Conservatory of Amsterdam)
Jazz-saxophone - masters degree (Conservatory of Amsterdam)

Jazz-saxophone and pedagogy - bachelor degree (The Liszt Academy of Music - Teacher's College, Hungary)
Economics - masters degree (Budapest Corvinus University, Hungary)
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Languages

English, French, ​Dutch, Hungarian