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The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Associate Principal Cello since 1991, Daniel Laufer was born in Israel, where he started playing the cello at age eleven, studying with his father, Wolfgang Laufer, cellist of the Fine Arts Quartet. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied with Robert Marsh and performed as a soloist and chamber musician on two European tours with the International Music Program. He continued his studies with his father and mother at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. At age 19, he joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and two years later he was asked to join the ASO.
Mr. Laufer has given recitals in Milwaukee, Madison, Dallas, Boston, and Atlanta, as well as live recitals for radio on WFMT in Chicago. He has performed as soloist with the Dallas and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, as well as community and university orchestras in Georgia and Wisconsin. In 1991, he and his father performed the Concerto for Two Cellos by David Ott with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and recorded it on the Koss label.
Mr. Laufer was a recipient of the first prize of the Young Artists Competition of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He has performed at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Kfar Blum Chamber Music Festival in Israel, SMU Conservatory Chamber Music Festival in Taos, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Barge Chamber Music Series in New York City, and Colorado Music Festival. Last summer he was invited to perform at the prestigious Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France.
A regular performer with chamber music ensembles in and outside of Atlanta, Mr. Laufer was a founding member of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and has collaborated in chamber music with Yo-Yo Ma, Sadao Harada, Robert Spano, and Alan Gilbert, among others. He has also performed on a number of occasions with the Fine Arts Quartet and their guests, including Pinchas Zukerman.
Last season, Mr. Laufer performed with the Michael O'Neal singers Donald McCullough's Holocaust Cantata: Songs from the Camps. Pierre Ruhe of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote, "Throughout the cantata, a lone cello plays a prominent role: weeping, protesting, keeping vigil, offering almost a running commentary on the texts. Atlanta Symphony cellist Daniel Laufer brought deep understanding to the music and, in vibrato and tone, sang with his cello like a wise old folk singer ? someone who needed to be listened to. Along with O'Neal's beautifully nuanced and balanced choir, he was the star of the evening."
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Daniel Laufer 
