“..IT’S SO EASY TO GET CARRIED AWAY BY THE IMAGINATIVE LEAPS AND BOUNDS SHE AND HER TRIO TAKE IN PURSUIT OF HER MUSICAL WANDERLUST. SO YOU LISTEN. THEN LISTEN AGAIN. AND AGAIN.”
BIO
Danielle Friedman is an Israeli pianist, composer, and improviser, currently based in Berlin.
Musically and geographically she crosses and transcends borders, bringing together different influences. Her music flows between Jazz, Classical, and lyrical as well as rhythmic free improvisation, riddled with imagination.
Friedman has been living and performing across the three continents she called home.
Her projects and bands include the Danielle Friedman Trio, Lisa Hoppe’s YSOP, Tangerine, Danielle Friedman’s REVA ,and D&DF&P. Friedman also plays regularily with artists and acts such as King Josephine, Maura MoC, Sophia Bicking & Danielle Friedman duo, to name a few.
Photo by Bellocchio Fotografie
Born in 1991 in Israel, Friedman started playing the piano at the age of 6 and was exposed to both classical and popular music. Throughout her adolescent years, she began to take interest in Jazz through her love for improvisation, and her unyielding fascination of rhythm.
After studying at the Israeli Conservatory in Tel Aviv (Center for Jazz Studies), she received a full scholarship to The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, where she finished her studies and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors in 2016.
Some of the musicians and educators who had the biggest impact on Friedman’s development as a musician include Anat Fort, Rea Barness, Yuval Cohen, Steve Cardenas, Benita Meshulam, and Cecil Bridgewater.
Danielle’s debut album "School of Fish” was recorded with her New York Trio in Brooklyn in 2017, with Aron Caceres on bass and David Jimenez on drums. The album was released alongside a short European tour in 2018 and received excellent reviews from acclaimed magazines.
With dancer and choreographer Doron Perk, she formed D&DF&P - a free-form duet using music and dance as languages. The duo debuted in 2017 in Dixon’s Place New York City, and continued to perform on International stages, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Kunstkooperative Berlin, Ha’teiva TLV and Camden Fringe Festival. The project received a young artists scholarship from the Israeli culture ministry in 2019.
Inclined to explore a new musical context, she moved to Berlin in 2018, where she has been working on and collaborating with many projects;
During the pandemic, she founded Zahir with musicians Lisa Hoppe and Lucia Boffo. Embracing their multiple belongings and interconnections with each other, they developed tenderly improvised, bold, and humorous original music, rooted in jazz and spinning freely wherever their associations would take them.
Shortly after, Friedman joined freshly formed Lisa Hoppe’s YSOP - an international band of musicians from Switzerland, France, Germany, and Israel. The unorthodox line-up (for jazz at least), consisting of vocals, violin/cello, trombone, piano, and upright bass, melts together acoustic and electrified sounds and creates an unusual statement of chamber music. Together they won the Transnational Jazz competition in 2021 and have since toured and recorded their debut album “Faking an inperfect Utopia” - nominated for Deutscher Jazzpreis ‘Best Debut Album of the Year 2024’.
“Weary Gold”, a solo piano album released in 2023, is Friedman's sophomore album, following her debut trio album, for which she received a grant from the German foundation Zurückgeben Stiftung in 2021 for the creation of this album.
“Weary Gold” was conceived during Covid times, and it comprises mostly original compositions, as well as some arrangements of well-known Israeli songs composed to the words of the poet Leah Goldberg. Throughout the songs, both original and arranged, there is a constant dialogue with the poet Leah Goldberg’s themes - nature, longing of the past, childhood, loneliness, and love.
Goldberg and Friedman intermittently deal with the question - of what and where is home.
Since 2022, Friedman has been embarking on a duo project with Amsterdam based saxophonist Aviv Noam called “Tangerine”. They have recorded their debut EP in January 2024, and received a composition scholarship from Amarte Fonds not long after. Tangerine is releasing it’s debut EP “Time Without Disasters” in May 30th 2025, and is touring Germany and the Netherlands in 2025-2026.
Photo by DeGrate Photography
Danielle Friedman is a musician who’s musical exploration knows no boundaries. She is interested in any kind of music that is real, deep, humurous, touching, and groovy. Friedman can be found performing on various stages and festivals in Europe, including Reeperbahn Festival, Berlin Jazz Woche, Bejazz transnational jazz festival, most wanted music: showcase, Donau115, Bird’s eye jazz club, and Jazzkeller69, To name a few, with her projects and bands.
Photo by Bellocchio Fotografie
“...she sounds like a force of nature with ideas flowing as if they are compelled to surge from her mind’s mind through to the nerve endings of her fingers. But there is something more: Miss Friedman’s music is born of a wellspring of great sensitivity.”