Daniel Bates, oboe (London, UK) is principal oboe with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia and co-principal oboe of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Previously, he also held the principal oboe position with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Sage, Gateshead. He has played as guest principal for all the major UK orchestras as well as various international orchestras such as the National Orchestra of Colombia, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. As a session musician he has recorded for numerous pop acts and films, including the Harry Potter franchise and for Barbra Streisand, Mary J Blige, Rihanna and Stevie Wonder. Born in London, Daniel attended the Purcell School of Music. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Celia Nicklin and Dougie Boyd, and then earned a music scholarship to study at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read Music and the History of Art. When he was eighteen years of age, he became the youngest ever winner of the Royal Overseas League Competition. Daniel also won major international competitions in Italy and Romania, as well as an English Speaking Union scholarship which enabled him to study at the Banff Music Centre in Canada. He has performed solo concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Brasov Filharmonica, the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the English Chamber Orchestra. His solo recital venues include the Wigmore Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Usher Hall and the Purcell Room. Internationally, he has given solo recitals in venues such as the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and at various European festivals he has partnered with musicians of international renown including Jörg Widmann, Elizabeth Leonskaya, Joan Rodgers and Anthony Marwood. As an actor, having studied classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, his credits include the title role in The Picture of Dorian Gray (Vienna’s English Theatre), Fedotik in The Three Sisters (alongside Kristen Scott Thomas and Eric Sykes in the West End) and Adrian Green in Casualty (BBC TV). Daniel is the founder and Artistic Director of FitzFest, a community chamber music festival based in Fitzrovia, central London.