Music has always been a kind of magic for me, a portal to other realms. When I was young, I was inspired by fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings, and I’m still drawn to myths and legends. I’ve written works on themes ranging from the planets, the sorcery of Merlin, and the Callanish Stone Circle, to the Torngat Mountains. My aim is to write music that invites audiences into other worlds, so they can re-discover their own sense of wonder." -- Daniel Perttu

Composers and writers whose works have influenced Perttu's music include Mahler, Shelley, Rautavaara, Barber, and Keats. Critic Lee Passarella notes the “modal strains [in Perttu’s music] that recall the works of . . . Ralph Vaughan Williams and Ernest Bloch”

(Audiophile Audition).

Dan’s second piano concerto, A Planets Odyssey, and has been characterized by critic Tom Wachunas as a “sensational non-stop trek across millions of miles” that “possesses an uncanny acuity for translating visual and tactile phenomena into palpable realities in themselves, endowing the work with a phantasmagorical dimensionality”

(Artwach).

Dan’s recent overture, To Spring, is based on an ode of the same name by poet William Blake. Writing for The Whole Note, Tiina Kiik characterizes To Spring as being “majestic” and “lyrical.” And, in Textura, the authors describe To Spring as “vivid, multi-hued scene painting packed with orchestral detail [that] feels like a blossoming, whether it be of youth or the natural world, and a triumphant one at that.” More