‘If you can make sound tell a story it becomes music, and were Daniel Weltlinger not a musician, he would still be a story-teller…he uses notes the way a supremely elegant writer – say, Austen or Orwell – uses words, so the sounds, rhythms and sentence constructions dovetail with the meaning so perfectly that the reader’s eye dances effortlessly along each line.’
John Shand – Sydney Morning Herald
‘Violinist Daniel Weltlinger composes and plays new material in the tradition of Django Reinhardt, but with a look to the future.’
George W. Harris – Jazz Weekly
‘The violin sings in the hands of Daniel Weltlinger like no other.‘
Peter Winkler – Music Trust Online
Born in Sydney, Australia in 1977 and of French-Hungarian family background, the critically acclaimed Berlin-based violinist and composer-producer Daniel Weltlinger has long been renowned worldwide for his distinctive warm sound, virtuosity and innovative improvisations within the genres of Gypsy-swing, jazz, Yiddish-klezmer and experimental/free-improvised music. He is frequently in demand in a performance or recording capacity, often in collaboration with an array of top musicians and ensembles in a variety of different formats, and is highly sought after for his technical and musical mastery on his main instrument. A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he has performed and recorded in countless major concert halls, theatres, clubs and festivals across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, China, Morocco, Turkey, the US and Israel, and continues to collaborate with a wide range of renowned artists and ensembles including German-Sinti guitarist and composer Lulo Reinhardt , Berlin based Yiddish singer-actor Karsten Troyke and singer-actress Sharon Brauner, the Berlin based big band Moka Efti Orchestra, Polish-Australian singer Nadya Golski and the Australian multi-ARIA Award-winning Gyp-rock band Monsieur Camembert amongst many others. He runs the independent record label Rectify Records, which produced the album ‘Koblenz’ nominated as amongst one of the best albums of 2015 in Downbeat Magazine, and in addition to leading various combinations under his own name continues to develop two Australian based contemporary music projects ‘Zohar’s Nigun’ and ‘The Asthmatix’ with long-time associate keyboardist Daniel Pliner, which fuse Jewish music within the respective contemporary frameworks of jazz and electronica/hip-hop. Artists and ensembles he has shared the stage and/or recorded with have included Katharine Mehrling, Marianne Rosenberg, Bettina Wegner, Suzanna Meier, Dotschy Reinhardt, Eric Manana, Mitya Gerasimov, Masha Raykhman, Stochelo Rosenberg, Joscho Stephan, Paulus Schäfer, Lollo Meier, Rino van Hooijdonk, Janko Lauenberger, Taylor Paucken, Ian Date, Taylor Savvy, LMNZ, Jstar, Swing de Gitanes, Ensemble Olivinn, SistaNagila, Time Rag Department and many more.
Weltlinger’s unique sound has been regularly featured on radio and television worldwide and featured on the award winning soundtrack composed by Nikko Weidemann and Mario Kamien for the hit TV show ‘Babylon Berlin‘ directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten which premiered in October 2017 on the Sky Television Network. Further film, documentary and theatre soundtrack credentials have included amongst others ‘Love My Way’ (Stephen Rae), ‘The Underpants’ (Alan John), ‘Uncle Chatzkel’ (Guy Gross), ‘Peking To Paris’ (Roger Mason), ‘The Cat That Walked By Himself’ (Peter Winkler) and ‘Meet The Waks Family’ (Neill Duncan). Weltlinger is endorsed by a number of top international companies and benefited in 2010-2017 from the support of BNP Paribas in Australia and the BNP Paribas Foundation in Paris for the development of a trilogy of recordings – ‘Souvenirs’ (2011), ‘Koblenz’ (2014) and ‘Samoreau‘ (2017) – in which he wrote original music and arrangements inspired by the music of the legendary Belgian born Manouche guitarist-composer Django Reinhardt. His last album ‘Szolnok’ which in music tells the remarkable true story of his grandfather’s Hungarian violin generated a further sponsorship from BNP Paribas in Central Europe in late 2018, and was released on May 3rd, 2019. Weltlinger has had further sponsorships with the Danish microphone manufacturer DPA microphones, US string instrument manufacturer Saga instruments as well as the Scottish acoustic amplification and electric violin manufacturer Skyinbow acoustic pickups, and is a co-composer with Australian producer-composer Bruce Maginnis for the international production music library houses Audio Network, Fable, Cavendish Music, The Funky Junkies, Intervox, Focus Music, Home Of Happy and Addictive Tracks.