HOLLAND, Mich. — Holland resident, Daniel Fisher, has successfully juggled his passions as an engineer and a music composer for years. Now retired, he has fully dedicated himself to his music, and has even recently earned recognition for his work in Hollywood, California.
Fisher’s musical journey began in childhood.
“If my mother took me to a department store like Sears or something, I would get lost, and she'd always find me in the music department with … my hands up on a keyboard making sounds,” he recalled.
As a military brat, he formed his first band in middle school, performing at naval hospitals in Guam while his father was stationed there.
"There were soldiers there from Vietnam who were, you know, shot and broken and burned and trying to recover there. We'd set up and we play for them, and the doctor once said that the music that we provided was a lot more impactful than the medicines that they could provide."
This experience left a significant impression on him.
“I really got a good sense of the healing power of music,” he noted.
However, Fisher also found a new passion during his college years when he decided to focus on engineering.
“I really loved it,” he said of the field he would spend decades working in, including positions at GHSP in Grand Haven and Gentex in Zeeland.
“I really love the challenge of being creative, to come up with unique solutions to difficult problems,” Fisher explained. This creativity later translated into his music composition work, which he began to pursue more deliberately after retiring.
Fisher has been self-taught in music composition for decades but a chance encounter about 10 years ago with an internationally known composer led to a significant breakthrough.
“He happened to be this internationally known composer, pianist, conductor from the Netherlands. And we got to talking, and we exchanged CDs,” Fisher said.
This connection resulted in him traveling to London for what he described as a 'crash course' in orchestral composition.
"On the plane back, I got on my computer and pieces that I written before I just saw in whole new different ways," Fisher explained. "And so, in 2016 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, I recorded my first piece of orchestral music with a major orchestra."
Following years of collaboration with the Dutch composer, Fisher finally launched his first album, Places Far Away, in 2022.
"What's really cool about this album, I think, is that it's got the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and some really wonderful solo artists on it," said Fisher.
Opportunities have kept knocking ever since.
"A couple years ago, I started working with some friends out of California and a friend of mine, David Fogle," Fisher said. "He created something called a symphonina .... which is about 10 minutes long, still with three to four movements, but each of the movements about the length of a typical streaming pop tune."
Fisher has been busy the past few years.
"We created an album last year and and we got number one on Billboard with the album. And we just released another album on 25th of June, called Ascension: Symphonina Rising," Fisher added. "He submitted all five of those into this award at the Hollywood Independent Music Award in the Contemporary Classical category."
Fisher flew to Hollywood, California in the summer and ended up winning the award in his category.
“There's some really, really good composers who were nominated... I felt really proud and excited and honored that I would be awarded,” he said.
Despite the accolades, Fisher emphasizes that his motivation comes from impact rather than recognition.
“I want people to really get their own feelings and images and find their own world and stories while they're listening to the music,” he said. “I want music to be uplifting, and I want it to touch people's hearts.”
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