Daniela Petry was born in 1982 and grew up in Berlin.

From her late teenage years onward, she became part of the Berlin jazz scene and explored genres such as Salsa and Tango. She collaborated with DJs and musicians from the Balkan scene. Above all, she has always been a player of improvised music, consistently finding ways to bring ideas from improvisation also into pop and world music bands. She performed at local festivals and toured across Europe.

From 2015 onwards, her artistic focus increasingly developed toward contemporary and interdisciplinary formats.

Daniela holds a Diploma in Classical Music Performance for Orchestra and a specialized Master’s degree in Contemporary Music Performance from the Musikakademie Basel, Switzerland. She performed as an orchestral musician at the Darmstadt Theatre and the Berliner Staatsoper, among others. She participated in contemporary master courses such as the Darmstadt Ferienkurse and the Ensemble Modern Academy in Schwaz. In Basel, she conducted musicological research within the DAAD-funded postgraduate program on what she calls “partly improvised random-principles,” comparing works by Brian Ferneyhough, John Zorn, and others.

In her recent artistic work, she developed a particular interest as an ensemble player and composer of concept-based improvisation within evolving forms of music theatre and interdisciplinary performance. She creates structured improvisational concepts dedicated to social, scientific, ecological, digital, and socio-political themes, both historical and contemporary. These ideas are translated into performances combining music, dance, theatre, and video, shaped by her extensive experience in opera and stage productions.

In contemporary composed music, she has performed at festivals and institutions such as Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Ruhrtriennale with Ensemble Musikfabrik, Klangspuren Schwaz, Neuköllner Oper Berlin in Golem, 8BrückenFestival Köln, Berlin Opera Lab, Berliner Staatsoper in Ti vedo, ti sento, mi perdo by Salvatore Sciarrino, Taktlos Festival Zürich, and with Art Ensemble NRW.

In other projects, she collaborated with Orchestre Europa and Electric Circus Sideshow in Berlin and London, Balkanova Ensemble in Berlin, Moers Festival, jazz@large at Stuttgarter Theaterhaus, and the Wuppertaler Improvisations Orchester.

Among the contemporary and modern solo works she particularly values are Nachklang by John Cox, Valentine by Jacob Druckman, Fury by Rebecca Saunders, Zwölf by Enno Poppe, Ein Hauch von Unzeit by Klaus Huber, Ryoanji and Music for… by John Cage, Trittico per G.S. by Brian Ferneyhough, Alisei by Stefano Scodanibbio, and Mantram by Giacinto Scelsi.

Current projects are