Daniel Temkin has been writing music since age thirteen. One of his earliest compositions, "The Realm of Solitude," was premiered in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall as part of the Cecilian Music Society's Young Artist Competition, and he is a recipient of the Theodore Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award, a 2010 Earshot Fellowship, and multiple ASCAPLUS Awards. Daniel was also selected as a winner in the NEC Honors Ensemble Composition Competition, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Young Composer Competition.

In recent years, Daniel's music has been performed by numerous professional and student ensembles across the United States. He has had orchestral performances with the Nashville Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra. In addition, his marimba solo Expansive Horizons was arranged for the acclaimed MusicCity Mystique percussion group, and his work Wistfully Reminiscing was premiered by pianist Qing Jiang to a capacity audience in Los Angeles's Bing Theatre in a performance subsequently broadcast on both the internet and LA radio. Daniel has worked with members of San Francisco new music group Nonsemble 6, and his song cycles your little voice…, and American Pastoral Songs, have been performed on numerous occasions in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Daniel has worked closely with the Trio-ING piano trio, and he has written pieces for the UNLV Brass Ensemble (March and Sing) and the Rutgers University Choir (Two Forest Songs).

Originally a percussionist, Daniel has appeared in Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony, and he has played with the Orchestra of St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, and the Mostly Mozart Festival's Riverside Choral Society. Daniel has performed in masterclass for many leading percussionists and he has worked under conductors David Zinman, James Conlon, Leonard Slatkin, Grant Llewellyn, Rossen Milanov, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Hugh Wolff, and others. He is featured on recordings of the Albany and Naxos labels, and has worked with composers John Corigliano, Gunther Schuller, and Charles Fussell, to prepare performances of their music. Daniel has also performed chamber music with soloists Orli Shaham and Sarah Chang.

An alumnus of the Eastern and Aspen Music Festivals, Daniel has studied and taught at Rutgers University, New England Conservatory, and the Brevard Music Center. His percussion teachers include Chris Deviney of the Philadelphia Orchestra and marimba virtuoso She-e Wu. He has studied composition with Michael Gandolfi, Charles Fussell, Kevin Puts, Robert Aldridge, and Sydney Hodkinson, and he is currently an Artist Diploma Candidate at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studies with Jennifer Higdon.