Daniel Kellogg

• Composer

Reviews

Daniel Kellogg press reviews

Washington Post
Daniel Kellogg, barely out of his 20s, is one of the most exciting composers around – technically assured, fascinated by unusual sonic textures, unfailingly easy to listen to, yet far from simplistic. Kellogg handles an orchestra brilliantly. His overture sounded just like what might have happened if Richard Strauss had written the theme song for a comic film about bustling Manhattan in the early 1960s. Clarinets squealed, drums pounded, sirens roared and a kazoo solo served as the preface to a comic kiss. It is highly theatrical music and makes one wonder eagerly what Kellogg might do should he turn his attention to opera.
Tim Paige The New Yorker
Kellogg's music gives off a palpable energy, and it is superbly crafted and controlled.
Alex Ross Washington Post
'Divinum Mysterium' by the prodigiously gifted young American composer Daniel Kellogg must be counted among the most immediately arresting new piece I've heard in years. Such is the richness and fertility of Kellogg's imagination that one listens breathlessly, delightedly, to every passing inspiration. Kellogg's prismatic colors, propulsive, exhilarating rhythms and unerring sense of musical narrative (I couldn't find a wasted note) give his work a vigor and freshness that is already his own. 'Divinum Mysterium' received a happy, whooping ovation: I left the theater already missing its company.
Tim Paige New York Times
Kellogg has an ear for shimmering colors and pungent harmony, who boldly alternates pulverizing outbursts with primordial ruminations.
Anthony Tommasini American Record Guide
Divinum Mysterium' is an outstanding work by a strikingly gifted composer. Its movements are by turns fragile, explosive, cool, propulsive and brutal. Its expressive range is broad, its colors fascinating, its drama gripping. Remember the name.
American Record Guide Chicago Tribune
Daniel Kellogg is a gifted and appealing craftsman among the younger U.S. composers. The medieval hymn (known in its Christian church usage as "Of the Father's Love Begotten") is first sung by Chanticleer, later woven through the following four sections before reemerging in the cello and piano at the end. Kellogg's six-part suite moves from spiky, hurtling rhythms to quiet post-minimalist murmurs before exploding into a great final shout of joyous celebration.
Chicago Tribune Washington Post
Daniel Kellogg may be the most gifted American composer under 30, and his "Divinum Mysterium," recorded by the new music ensemble Eighth Blackbird, is among the most immediately arresting pieces I've heard in years. Scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion, "Divinum Mysterium" lasts a full half-hour yet never comes close to wearing out its welcome. On the contrary: Such is the richness and fertility of Kellogg's imagination that one listens breathlessly, delightedly, to every passing inspiration, from the chimes and chanting that set the piece into motion through to its dynamic, ecstatic close. The disc also contains George Crumb's "Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale)," an evocative, if rather dated, work from a venerated master. But it is Kellogg who steals the show -- and, with any luck, he is just getting started.
Tim Paige San Francisco Chronicle
With its second commercial release, the brilliant sextet Eighth Blackbird continues to inject vitality and allure into the new-music scene. The two works here come at creation from fascinatingly diverse angles, a neo- Christian approach from the exuberant young composer Daniel Kellogg and the shaggy eco-humanism of old master George Crumb. My money's on the former -- Kellogg's 30-minute "Divinum Mysterium" is one of the most engaging, hallucinatory and beautiful works to come along in years. From the liturgical opening (sung by Chanticleer), the piece traces the world's creation in a few vivid strokes: the God-visited chaos, the advent of light (Wagner's "Magic Fire" music reimagined by Stravinsky) and the celebration of completion.
San Francisco Chronicle