Buck McDaniel, born in 1994, is an American composer who writes orchestral music, works for the stage, chamber music, and sacred music. His influences range from the American Minimalist tradition and the music of his childhood in the American South. His work with religious institutions spurred a choral collaboration with recording artist Sam Smith presented on NBC’s Saturday Night Live (2023), and his chamber work Memory Ground (2021) for the Desdemona Ensemble was presented by The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In 2022, McDaniel lead a four-week festival with scholars Eric Thomas and Carla Roland of experimental liturgies focusing on Queer identity at The General Theological Seminary, and a new work with Thomas will premiere at Pride 2024 in Washington, D.C. His organ music has been championed internationally by artists Todd Wilson (Belfast Pipeworks Festival), James McVinnie (Lincoln Cathedral), and Nicolas Haigh (Saint Thomas Church, 5th Avenue).

His works for the stage include Fire on the Water (2019), a multi-media collaboration with producer Jacob Kirkwood and director Raymond Bobgan for Cleveland Public Theatre and Stranger in the Garden (2022), a one-act adaptation of Edith Wharton’s ‘Afterward’ for organ & narrator with actress Caitlin Caruso-Dobbs that premiered at The Actors’ Chapel in New York City.

A frequent collaborator with Kirkwood, McDaniel composed the sound installation Landscape Piece (2019) for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the studio works Patterns on Dufy (2019) with saxophonist Noa Even and Difference & Repetition (2018). Other collaborations include an arrangement of Nico Muhly’s Bright Mass with Canons (2014) for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Muhly Variations (2012) for the Argot Trio recorded on the Centaur label, and both concert and studio arrangements with Mourning [A] BLKstar, Elvis Depressedly, and ITEM. 

He serves as Director of Music at the Church of Our Saviour and Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary, Artist in Residence at The General Theological Seminary, and lives in New York City.