A Detroit area native, he attended the University of Michigan where he studied acting, directing, playwriting and poetry. After finishing his studies he lived, played music, recorded, acted, directed plays and composed theatre music in New Orleans, New York, and Michigan.
In 2005, invited by Alan Bern, Daniel moved to Berlin and, after first attending Yiddish Summer Weimar formed the band "The Painted Bird.” His primary engagement with Yiddish song as a translator, adaptor and performer is to re-contextualize traditional material into contemporary frameworks.
Performing throughout Europe, Russia, Israel, and North America, Daniel regularly works and collaborates with artists including Michael Winograd, Dan Blacksberg, Jake Shulman-Ment, Michael Alpert, Alan Bern, Steve Greenman, Frank London, Vanya Zhuk, and Psoy Korolenko, with whom he has the project “The Unternationale.”
In Berlin, he continues to work in the theatre, most recently acting in and composing songs and music for Hakan Savas Mican's “Waiting for Adam Spielman,” an apocalyptic absurdist dreamplay about a possible Jewish diasporic messiah from Detroit. Go know.

www.paintedbird.net