Writing Music That Creates Sensations with Charly Daniels

And on music/Maker: how one composer is challenging institutions to do better.

Author

Tyler Kline
August 22, 2025

🍃 Loose Leaf Transmissions – Weekly Dispatch

Friends, I’ve got a fantastic conversation for y’all this week!

Back in March, I had the chance to attend the Penn State New Music Festival – a great opportunity to reconnect with familiar faces and meet a few new ones as well.

One of those new connections was composer Charly Daniels. We only spoke briefly at the festival, but stayed in touch afterwards, and before long, I invited him onto music/Maker.

This week’s episode is a fun one: Charly talks about how Mexico City – his home – finds its way into his music, sometimes even subconsciously. We also delve into some big picture differences between how composers in the U.S. and Mexico approach their work, and Charly shares why he has moved away from memory-driven music toward something more immediate and felt.

Don’t miss it – plus, there are two new micro/Maker episodes streaming now with Marc Mellits and Shelley Washington.

🎧 New on the Feed

🎙 music/Maker with Tyler Kline

Now streaming: Writing Music That Creates Sensations with Charly Daniels

Photo credit: Rafael Arriaga.

Charly Daniels is a composer based in Mexico City whose work spans orchestral and chamber music, film, dance, and symphonic band. His music has been performed both nationally and internationally by groups such as the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet, Arizona Woodwind Quintet, Borderlands Ensemble, and major orchestras throughout Mexico. His orchestral career accelerated after winning first prize at the Future Symphony Competition in Lithuania in 2020.

In this conversation, Charly reflects on his unusual path into composing — from sequencing music as a teenager with no formal theory training, to discovering orchestral music as his creative home. He and Tyler discuss how Mexico City’s energy shapes his work, how synesthesia influences his harmonic and timbral language, and why he strives to write music that creates emotional sensations rather than memorable themes. They also talk about artistic confidence, creative non-linearity, and the delicate balance between ambition and process.

New episodes every other Thursday. Subscribe now!

🎙 micro/Maker

micro/Maker 027: Writing for a Funky Pocket (featuring Marc Mellits)

Marc Mellits shares how groove isn’t about notation—it’s about feel, space, and subtle placement.

micro/Maker 028: Challenging Institutions to Do Better (featuring Shelley Washington)

Shelley Washington speaks openly about the limits of tokenism and the need for real, systemic change in classical music.

Episodes are released every Tuesday and Friday. Subscribe now!

🔜 Coming Up Soon

Next week on micro/Maker, we hear from two artists whose creative lives are grounded in sensory attention and subtle detail. Nathan Hudson shares how coffee has shaped his life just as deeply as music – from espresso mishaps to serving celebrities and roasting beans professionally, it’s a practice of presence, intuition, and connection.

And Joshua Mallard brings us into the world of game sound design, where composing and technical sound work converge to create immersive experiences – showing how tiny sonic decisions can steer a player’s emotions and shape a narrative just as much as the visuals can.

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That’s all for now – thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the new episodes.