Daniel Mangiaracino
Op. Sans
Hi, I'm Daniel Mangiaracino, and I'm pretty excited to show you this project that I've developed over the past semesters. My project really has a primary focus on combining the arts in a multimedia fashion - particularly that of music and dance. Filming it, editing it, and posting it on the web. I think the largest message that comes out of this project is to create a dialogue about how music is presented now and how it will be presented in the future, and how that will change the way that classical music behaves, is created, and is performed. I think that there is much more collaboration between the arts in different mediums, and I would like to be a part of that dialogue with technology.
Now, there is a secondary part. I have quite the hefty following on social media - and particularly that of a younger audience. I would like to expose more classical styles of music and dance to a younger audience so as to expose them to the type of music that they may not hear in their everyday palette of sounds.
The process for making these pieces was pretty straightforward. I didn't have a team, so the main part of my interaction with the people in this project was particularly that of scheduling rehearsals and getting space in order to have those rehearsals, as well as finding space to film.
There are three pieces of music in this collection. I'd like to consider them movements, because conceptually, the entire thing is in sonata form. The details about that can be found in written explanations accompanying each piece in the descriptions of the videos.
In terms of how the project itself was made, I would compose the music, I would produce it on Logic Pro 10, and then I would choreograph to said music and put it on the dancers. Obviously, the choreography was a little bit of a connection between the music and the dancer because I was making movement that would accompany the music quite well, but also still movement that would look good on the specific dancer that I was using. For two of the pieces, that only took one weekend. For the other piece, there were some hitches in the film, so we had to record it a second time - which in retrospect was actually a good idea, because it gave me some inspiration between one weekend and another. Finally, when all the takes were had, I would put it into Adobe Premier Pro and I would edit it, and now it is presented as a playlist on my YouTube channel.
I really hope you enjoy it.
Op. Sans
Daniel:
Daniel Mangiaracino is a person of many artistic backgrounds; as a pianist, dancer, and actor, he has found a way to allow each art to benefit the other, creating a vastly unique experience for those viewing his performances. Whether it be on stage or in a household, Daniel performs with both exuberant passion for the art yet with precision and focus of a versed scholar. He strives to connect and engage with communities through music and with a viral enthusiasm spreading to others; this will in turn make classical arts and disciplines more accessible to those wary of it and to rekindle exuberant aspirations in a world of despair.
A current student at USC Pursuing a Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance and a Minor in Dance, Daniel has developed a sense of present musical awareness both aurally and through movement, performing internationally works by Carl Vine, Marc-Andre Hamelin, and Enoujin Rautavaara, spreading awareness of the music’s complexity and color. Daniel has won many accolades including the Clara Wells Fellowship award (2017), Second Place in the Encore International Piano Competition (2017), and Grand Prize in the first annual Kuleshov Competition (2016). He has been trained by esteemed pianists in masterclasses such as Boris Slutzky, Daniil Triifonov, and Vadym Kholodenko. He formally studied with Dr. Scott McBride Smith and Dr. T.J. Lymenstull throughout his middle and High School career, and now studies with Professor Kevin Fitz-Gerald at USC.
Along with other game-related scoring endeavors, Daniel extends his creativity through dance. Partnering with Phoenix Ballet, he has had two of his music-dance works, Chai Oceans (choreography by Myles Avallee) and Void (co-choreographed with Chase Vining) debuted and performed on-stage, each containing over 100 dancers in full. Through releasing music-dance works such as Opus Sans, he hopes to connect music and dance through a single-mind vision, a direct integration of the two arts. He has trained and danced with Ballet Midwest, Pasadena Dance Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, and is currently a soloist at Phoenix Ballet.
Daniel also extends his multi-faceted musical background through composing and producing music, creating music for independent game developers such as Generation 7 Studios’ Escape Room as well as its sequel, the game harboring over 150 million plays worldwide. Often inspired by video games and their environments, he has also caught the eye of the public through his YouTube channel Dein0mite, where he combines classical music, video game soundtracks, and a sense of humor in order to connect younger audiences with music in a greeted context of the world around them. With a following of over 1 million collective followers on the web, Daniel has gained the recognition of many internet big-names such as Pewdiepie, SethEverman, and Daniel Thrasher.