Invited by the greatest European symphonic orchestras, Daniel Kawka, musical director of the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain is one of the greatest performers for works of the 20th century and the romantic repertory, from Beethoven to Strauss.

After an intense activity devoted to the interpretation of contemporary repertories, conducting about 400 works and creations, he is more interested today by the interpretation of 20th century’s masterpieces, particularly English and North American works.

His large repertory extends to the opera and to the great symphonic works with chorus. He conducts the main lyric works and the great romantic frescos such as Verdi’s La Messa da Requiem, Ein Deutches Requiem by Brahms, Mahler’s Symphony “Resurrection”, Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz, as well as conducting operas of J. Evangelista, J. Lenot, Le vase de parfum of S. Giraud (libretto and staging by O. Py, Divorzio all’italiana, G. Battistelli, and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde staged in Geneva, June ‘09 (director O. Py), and Tannhaüser staged in Rome, autumn 09 (director R. Carsen).

He belongs to this generation of conductors for whom the idea of "specialization" is a way of opening up the entire repertory, all periods combined, but with a special predilection for French music (Dutilleux, Boulez), Italian, German (Beethoven, Wagner, Strauss, Bruckner, Mahler) and Russian (Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky).