Dan Poynton — New Zealand pianist
composer, presenter on contemporary piano music

An intense, poetic performer who has a gift of communicating with his audience and a sense of humour to boot.

Dan Poynton's stage presence and his skill and sensitivty on the piano have become well known and respected throughout New Zealand. He has travelled and performed widely: taking his uniquely New Zealand voice out into the world.

He is also known for his quixotic performances such as An Introduction to M. Erik Satie — Gymnopedist a dramatic retelling of the man and his work.

Reviews — Dan Poynton

… the ideal man to break down musical barriers and introduce a breath of bracing Kiwi air into the stuffiness of the concert hall.…an impish sense of humour… an accomplished and uniquely New Zealand performer. The Dominion Wellington, New Zealand

A highly imaginative musician who has a great ability to convey his own enjoyment of the music to the audience. … uncompromising individuality Michael Houston New Zealand Herald Auckland

One of New Zealand music's best-kept secrets with a deep respect for the instrument, bordering on reverence … always fully immersed in the performance. It seems each work has some special significance for him and becomes a personal statement in the playing.The Christchurch Press

Some of his interpretations [of NZ music] have come to be regarded as near-definitive."City Voice

CDs featuring Dan Poynton's work

You Hit Him He Cry Out

Dan Poynton

Best Classical Album in the 1998 NZ Music Awards.
Melodic. Rhythmic. Ambient. Dramatic. Minimalist. Romantic.

This is the music of leading New Zealand composers, performed with passion and subtlety. For all their exotic sounds, these pieces are played on (or inside) a grand piano. Dan Poynton has become familiar to audiences throughout New Zealand as a persuasive exponent of this repertoire, both through the quality of his performances and his stage-presence, and the album captures his commitment to and love for the music.

Includes one of Dan's compositions, Nga Iwi E.Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com

Douglas Lilburn: Complete Piano Music Vol.1

Dan Poynton (piano)

First of 4 CDs covering the complete piano music of New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn. It is performed by Dan Poynton, a dynamic pianist renowned for his sensitive and colourful performances of music by New Zealand composers.

Poynton uncovered several previously unheard pieces while researching this project, and this CD contains premiere recordings of several works, including a Piano Sonata which was composed in 1939 when Lilburn was studying in London with Vaughan Williams. More on Lilburn complete Piano Music Vol 1 Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com

Lilburn: Complete Piano Music Vol.2

Dan Poynton (piano)

This album includes several more premiere recordings of a number of works which were never publicly performed in the composer’s lifetime.

The performances by Dan Poynton are assured and idiomatic, presenting an unseen side of this pre-eminent New Zealand composer. More on Lilburn complete Piano Music Vol 2 Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com

A Chaos of Delight

Eve de Castro-Robinson

includes Tingling Strings and small blue performed by Dan Poynton (piano)Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com

Composer Portrait: Jack Body

Various

Includes Sentimental Songs, Dan Poynton (piano)Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com

A Violin and Piano Recital

Mark Menzies / Dan Poynton

New Zealand works for violin and piano composed between 1964 and 1993Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com

New Zealand Chamber Music

Various

Includes Piano Poems, Dan Poynton (piano) Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com

Biography — Dan Poynton

Dan Poynton, pianist and composer, is known as the champion of NZ music and is in significant demand throughout Australasia and Asia, especially for his solo piano performances.

More recently, he has perofrmed with New Zealand Soprano — Deborah Wai Kapohe, and German Soprano, Sylvia Nopper. Dan performed with  Sylvia Nopper in Malaysia, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland.

In 1997, Dan launched his CD of NZ piano music called You hit him he cry out which won the Classical Award in the 1998 NZ Music Awards.

Dan was chosen to record the complete piano works of Douglas Lilburn: In 2004 the first 2 volumes were launched, and in 2005 Volume 1 won shared the 2005 Tui Award for Best Classical Album with Jonathan Lemalu’s Opera Arias.

Dan's talent was first recognised in 1983

Dan's first major musical recognition came while at school in Wellington, New Zealand, when he won the Composition Prize at the 1983 National Westpac School Music Competition.
In 1986 he was a finalist in the TVNZ Young Musician's Competition and the National Christchurch Concerto Competition.  In 1988 he was awarded first prize in the National Kerikeri Piano Competition.

Dan Poynton has performed widely through the world

The countries Dan has performed in include:

• Thailand: Bangkok
• India
• Germany
• UK: London, England, Sotland
• Holland: Amsterdam
• Ireland
• Switzerland
• China: Shanghai , Beijing
• USA: New York.

"you hit him he cry out" — Dan Poynton

Exotic music by leading composers from Aotearoa – “The Land of the Long White Cloud”, played on the “Big Fella Box He Got Many Teeth You Hit Him He Cry Out”. Or in English: beautiful piano music from New Zealand.

New Zealand is a melting pot of many cultures: Maori, Pacific, European, Asia…and this little out of the way country has been producing some amazing music lately - music that springs from these diverse cultures: intuitive, mystical, exotic, moody, subtle….sometimes crude and raucous… often avoiding the rigorous European traditions of intellect and ‘good taste’…human and direct, with a touch of the universal melancholy of displaced peoples…you will not have heard anything like it, especially when played by one of New Zealand’s most renowned and innovative performers, Dan Poynton.of whom it has been written – “The man is a conceptual genius.”

An intense, poetic performer who has a gift of communicating with his audience and a sense of humour to boot. His CD ‘you hit him he cry out’ won the NZ Music Awards Classical Prize in 1998.

As an audience you may think you are on a Polynesian desert island rather than at a ‘Classical’ concert – and in the end you may not know what sort of music you are listening to…boundaries fall with the potential to be entranced by the music of leading New Zealand Composers including Douglas Lilburn, John Psathas, Jack Body, Gillian Whitehead and Dan himself.

Critics world-wide are unanimous in their praise and delight in Dan’s performances. In Germany in late 2001 it was written of his concert “Just how many-sided the contemporary music of New Zealand is, could be experienced in a wonderful concert by Dan Poynton… The keys seemed to burn under Poynton's expressive touch… With a touch of genius Poynton showed how unorthodox and colourful, amusing and simultaneously atmospheric piano music can be.”

He is "... the ideal man to break down musical barriers and introduce a breath of bracing Kiwi air into the stuffiness of the concert hall.”

Dan is… "One of New Zealand music's best-kept secrets…with a deep respect for the instrument, bordering on reverence…always fully immersed in the performance. It seems each work has some special significance for him and becomes a personal statement in the playing."

An Introduction to M. Erik Satie — Gymnopedist

Mompou — Presented by Dan Poynton

"this music has no air or light. It is a weak heart beat, you cannot ask it to reach more than a few inches into space, but it's mission is to reach the profound depths of our soul and the secret regions of our spirit's spirit. This music is quiet (callada) because one listens to it within. Contained and reserved. It's emotion is secret and only becomes sound from resonance under the cold cape of our society. It is my desire that this music, should bring us closer to the warmth of life, and the expression of the human heart, that is always the same and constantly changing." Mompou