"Splendid, assured and memorized performance."
(The Diapason)
"A fine player-his enthusiasm, exuberance and sensitivity come across right from the first variation. Nor is he afraid to use the full resources of this extensive four manual...I was captivated right until the very end."
(The Organ, England)
"Daniel Sullivan's warm interaction with an audience and his fiercely beautiful playing need to be experienced by everyone who loves the organ, and especially by those who don't!" (Paul Jacobs, organ department chairman, The Juilliard School, New York)
"In spite of the profundity and unfailing good taste of this rendition (Bach's Goldberg Variations), there are nevertheless priceless moments of humor...This is a recording that has the power not only to inspire but to remake the listener's musicianship. It is iconoclastic in all the right ways...recommended without reserve." (newliturgicalmovement.org)
"An enthusiastic and appreciative audience enjoyed the organ recital in Hexham Abbey by the young American Daniel Sullivan, an Oundle award-winner....It was superb!....Brilliant, astonishing, almost unbelievable, a tour de force...a memorable and entertaining concert by a very promising young organist with style and a formidable technique." (Hexham Courant, England)
"Organist elevates instrument's status."
(Albuquerque Journal)
Daniel Sullivan
concert organist
American organist Daniel Sullivan practices a wide-ranging career as a performer and teacher. He has been a featured soloist at New York City's Basically Bach Festival, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, and the White Mountain Musical Arts Annual Bach Festival in New Hampshire. As an Oundle recital award-winner, he has performed in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Hexham, England. In 2008 Raven Compact Discs released his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, and American Record Guide wrote that "if you like the Goldberg's enough to buy more than one recording, this one should be on your must-have list." Performing the Goldberg's as well as other solo concerts has taken Mr. Sullivan to cities all over the United States, including San Francisco, Albuquerque, Tucson, Prescott, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Jacksonville Beach, Newark, Caspar (WY), Davenport (IA), Columbia (SC), and Harrisburg (PA).
Mr. Sullivan's skills and sensitive performances have earned him first and second prizes in the Miami International, San Marino, Gruenstein Memorial, Arthur Poister, Albert Schweitzer, Cleveland-AGO, and Twin Cities-AGO organ competitions.
In addition to playing solo concerts, he performs collaboratively with pianist Jason Cutmore as the New York Piano-Organ Duo and with organist Isabelle Demers as the Sullivan-Demers Two-Organ Duo.
The NY Piano-Organ Duo pursues standard works for this special combination of instruments by composers such as Franck and Langlais, in addition to their own transcriptions of other music and new works by living composers. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Cutmore have arranged Ravel's "Mother Goose Suite" for piano-organ duet. They have concertized together in Canada and the United States, playing at such well-known venues as Canada's Elora Festival, Cincinnati's Hyde Park United Methodist Church, and Finney Chapel at Oberlin College. They have also played in Lacomb (Alberta), Davenport (IA), Norwalk (CT), Saratoga Springs (NY), and White Plains (NY).
Mr. Sullivan's work with Isabelle Demers focuses on transcribing music for performance on two organs played at the same time. They have arranged music from Bach's Wachet Auf Cantata, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet, Beethoven's 7th Symphony, and Wagner's Tannhäuser. In 2008 the Jacksonville AGO chapter invited them to perform for their "Organ Spectacular" celebration. They have also performed in Roanoke (VA), Pensacola (FL), Farmington Hills (MI), and Allentown (PA).
In 2008-2009, Mr. Sullivan was appointed to the faculty of Juilliard to design and teach an organ literature class. While living in New York, he also taught piano and organ privately. Mr. Sullivan earned his Mus.B. from Oberlin Conservatory, Mus.M. from Yale University, and the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he is also completing final work for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. All three schools heavily subsidized his education with generous grants. His teachers have included Paul Jacobs, Thomas Murray, and Haskell Thomson.
Mr. Sullivan now resides in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he teaches piano at Immanuel Lutheran High School and College; he is also one of several organists at Messiah Lutheran Church.