Daniel Asia, b. Seattle, WA 1953, has been an eclectic and unique composer from the start. He has enjoyed the usual grants from Meet the Composer, a UK Fulbright award, Guggenheim Fellowship, MacDowell and Tanglewood fellowships, ASCAP and BMI prizes, Copland Fund grants, and numerous others. He was recently honored with a Music Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

From 1991-1994 he was Meet-the-Composer Composer-in-Residence of the Phoenix Symphony, and from 1977-1991 the co-music Director and Conductor of the New York-based contemporary music ensemble Musical Elements. Asia is also a writer and critic and his articles have appeared in Academic Questions, The New Criterion, and the Huffington Post. He is the editor of the book The Future of (High) Culture in America, published by Cambridge Scholars. Presented with the FIU Amernet String Quartet.