Daisy Press

Daisy Press has been hailed by the New York Times as an “intrepid, passionate” voice in modern classical music. In the US and Europe, she has worked intimately with influential living composers Steve Reich, George Crumb, Bernhard Lang, Martin Smolka, and Rebecca Saunders. Ms. Press was the featured soloist in Vienna-based Phace Ensemble’s production of the late Fausto Romitelli’s searing video opera “An Index of Metals.” in Germany (Elbphilharmonie), Austria (Wiener Konzerthaus) and Spain (L’Auditori). In September 2021 she will join Klangforum Wien as the soloist in Rebecca Saunders’ large-scale work “Yes.”

Daisy is a specialist in the music of 12th-century mystic and polymath Hildegard of Bingen, and she incorporates practices of North Indian (Hindustani) ragas into her unusual interpretations of Hildegard’s chants. In late 2021 her first all-Hildegard album will be released on Story Sound Records. Daisy is the creator and High Priestess of the now-online phenomenon known as Voice Cult, a vibrant community which meets weekly to explore singing Hildegard’s music as a regular grounding practice for body and spirit.

At Brooklyn’s famed House of Yes, pre-pandemic, Daisy regularly collaborated with the in-house circus artists and acrobats to compose and improvise works which embodied virtuosity, holiness, and stings of irreverence.

For several years she served as the lead backing singer/dancer for the band “Chromeo,” and appeared with them on The Late Show With David Letterman, Conan, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Lollapalooza, Coachella, and as headliners of the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Ms. Press has served on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Masters degree. She holds academic degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and Oxford University, and in the past she has studied vocal technique with Trish McCaffrey and currently studies North Indian ragas with Michael Harrison and Sajan Sankaran.