Daniel Barenboim Biography When was Daniel born? 1942 Where was Daniel born? Buenos Aires, Argentina,
How was Daniel's relationship with his parents?
How was Daniel's relationship with his parents?
Daniel Barenboim was born in 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Argentinian-Jewish parents Aida (nee Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert in his hometown, Buenos Aires.  In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwangler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwangler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a child of Jewish parents to be performing in Berlin. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.  On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pre were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, Du Pre having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'," Mehta recalled. Du Pre retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pre's death in 1987.  In the early 1980s, Barenboim began an affair with the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova, with whom he had two sons born in Paris before du Pre's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pre, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist. CANNOTANSWER
He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father,
Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is a pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain.

The current general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.

Biography

Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in  Buenos Aires.

In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.

In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist.

Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.

Career

After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.

In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.

Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.

Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.

Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.

On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.

In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.

In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East.  He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.

In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.

In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.

In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.

Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.

In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:

The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...

Recordings

In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).

Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.

By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.

Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.

To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.

Conducting Wagner in Israel

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.

This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.

Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."

In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".

In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.

However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.

In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.

Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.

A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".

In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".

In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."

In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".

In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."

He also said, that

since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.

In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."

Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.

Political views

Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.

Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."

West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.

In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".

After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".

In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.

Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:

I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?

Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.

In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."

In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".

In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".

In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".

Awards and recognition

 Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
 Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
 Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
 Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
 Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
 Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
 Goethe Medal, 2007
 Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
 International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
 Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
 Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
 In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
 Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East;
 Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
 Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
 Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
 Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
 Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
 International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
 Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
 Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
 Elgar Medal, 2015

Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.

Honorary degrees
 Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
 Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
 Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
 Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
 Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
 Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
 University of Florence, 2020

Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 6 Grammy Awards.

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
 Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
 Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)

Straight-strung piano 
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.

See also
 List of peace activists

References

External links

 
 
 Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
 Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
 "In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
 In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
 BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
 Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
 Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
 Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
 Westphalian Peace Prize
 Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
 Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
 Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
 Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993

1942 births
Living people
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century Argentine musicians
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century male musicians
Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni
Argentine classical pianists
Argentine conductors (music)
Argentine emigrants to Israel
Argentine Jews
Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Child classical musicians
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Erato Records artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Grammy Award winners
Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Israeli classical pianists
Israeli conductors (music)
Israeli expatriates in Germany
Israeli expatriates in Italy
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Jewish Argentine musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Jews in the State of Palestine
Male classical pianists
Male conductors (music)
Music directors of the Berlin State Opera
Musicians awarded knighthoods
Musicians from Buenos Aires
Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Spinozists
United Nations Messengers of Peace
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine
Daniel Robinson is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Tim Phillipps. Daniel was created in 1992 as the son of iconic Neighbours couple Scott (Jason Donovan) and Charlene (Kylie Minogue). He was occasionally referred to in the episodes since then, but never seen on-screen. At the end of 2013, it was announced that Daniel would be introduced as a new family member for Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis). Auditions were held for the role, with producers stating that the actor would need to resemble his on-screen parents. During the casting process, Phillipps was approached for the role and, following a chemistry read with Dennis, was given the part. He had previously appeared in Neighbours in 2007. Phillipps relocated to Melbourne for filming and was initially contracted for 12 months. He made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 29 April 2014. Two years later, Daniel was written out of Neighbours, and he made his departure on 26 April 2016.

Daniel was initially portrayed as a happy-go-lucky, easy-going, hippy, who wanted to make the most out of life. He is a keen photographer, skateboarder and surfer. Phillipps used traits from his own personality to flesh out the character. Daniel came to Erinsborough to see where his parents fell in love and decided to stay for his uncle. Phillipps stated that Paul and Daniel have a great relationship, as they both want to be good influences on each other. Daniel's first major storyline was a love triangle involving himself, Amber Turner (Jenna Rosenow) and Josh Willis (Harley Bonner). Amber and Daniel were later engaged. Daniel's past was explored a little further when his ex-girlfriend Rain Taylor (Airlie Dodds) was introduced towards the end of 2014. The character has also formed a relationship with Imogen Willis (Ariel Kaplan) and been manipulated by Dakota Davies (Sheree Murphy). Daniel's personality also changed, as he became more ruthless and career driven. The character has received mixed reviews from critics.

Creation and casting
Daniel is the son of iconic Neighbours couple Charlene (Kylie Minogue) and Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan), who departed the show in 1988 and 1989 respectively. He was created as an off-screen character in 1992. He was occasionally mentioned in episodes since then, but never appeared on-screen. Daniel's arrival was first teased by executive producer Jason Herbison in November 2013, who said a new family member for Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) would be introduced the following year. The character's arrival was officially confirmed on 2 December and the casting department began auditions for the role, with producers stating that he would need to resemble his screen parents. Dennis said the process was long as everyone wanted to find the right actor for the part. Dennis was "heavily involved" in the casting. He explained that as Daniel was an important character, "they wanted to get it right with looks, with acting ability and most importantly the chemistry between Paul and Daniel."

After the role was cast, producers planned to reveal the actor during his first episode broadcast in Australia. However, on 20 April 2014, a reporter for The Australian confirmed that actor Tim Phillipps had been cast in the role. Phillipps previously appeared in Neighbours in 2007, as Fox, a figment of Paul's imagination. Phillipps was cast shortly after returning from the United States where he was working for three-and-a-half years. He was approached for the part after he sent a tape to Melbourne, where Neighbours is filmed. He met with the producers and did "a chemistry read" with Dennis. He was offered the role shortly after. Phillipps relocated to Melbourne for filming and he was initially contracted for 12 months. He later said that he wanted to stay for longer as a year was not long enough. Phillipps researched his screen parents by watching clips of the show on YouTube. He made his screen debut as Daniel on 29 April 2014. In March 2015, Phillipps said that he was happy at Neighbours and would be staying for at least two more years.

Development

Introduction and characterisation
Ahead of his introduction, Herbison said Daniel's unexpected arrival would see him "begin the next chapter of his life." While Jack Klompus for Digital Spy reported that Daniel would come to Erinsborough to see where his parents fell in love. Shortly after his arrival, Daniel set up camp at Lassiter's Lake, the scene of a fatal shooting involving his cousin Kate (Ashleigh Brewer). When Imogen Willis (Ariel Kaplan) discovered him there, she asked him to move on. When she saw Daniel had still not left, Imogen told Paul Robinson to come down and tell him to leave, but Paul was "delighted" to find the camper was actually his nephew. Dennis called Daniel's arrival "a huge surprise" for Paul and thought it was a good distraction for him. Paul's happiness was short-lived when Daniel told him he was only passing through, but after a phone call to his mother, Daniel changed his mind and stayed for his uncle.

In his fictional backstory, Daniel grew up in Brisbane with his family. He dropped out of university to travel around the country. Phillipps initially said Daniel was "happy-go-lucky" and in touch with nature. He asserted that Daniel would not arrive with any secrets. Phillipps later described Daniel as being "a laid-back surfer dude who is a bit of a hippy as well. He is easy-going, care-free and positive." Phillipps also said Daniel was a loving person, who wants the make the most of his life. Daniel is a keen photographer, skateboarder and beach bum. He is around four years younger than Phillipps, who was 26 when he joined the show. Phillipps stated that he shares some similarities with Daniel, as he used parts of his own personality to try and flesh out the character. He also said that he could relate to Daniel's friendly "loving side".

In March 2015, Phillipps hoped that he would get to explore a darker side to Daniel and said that he had been filming scenes which revealed Daniel had been a bully in the past. He continued, "this is really cool and it explains why he is so good now. He just decided one day that he doesn't want to be this guy because he saw how it was affecting people, so he became ultra good." Phillipps wanted to show that Daniel was not always good and he thought that he might have his uncle's darker traits in him.

Relationships

Paul Robinson
Sarah Ellis from Inside Soap wrote that Daniel's arrival could not have come at a better time for Paul, who was grieving for his recently deceased niece Kate. Phillipps said that Daniel was excited to spend time with Paul and believed that he could help him with his grief. He continued, "I think Daniel is really happy to just be settled for a while because he is road-tripping. Paul has been grieving over Kate's death, so they are a really good match for each other right now. Their relationship is really strong." Dennis asked for Paul and Daniel's first scene to be rewritten as he wanted to establish their strong relationship from the beginning. The original script saw Paul failing to recognise his nephew. Dennis took his worries to the writers who agreed to change the scenes. Phillipps stated that Paul and Daniel have "a great uncle and nephew relationship" and thought they were a good pairing, as they both wanted to be good influences on each other. He explained that Daniel initially believed his uncle was beloved by the community, but he slowly realised that a lot of people do not like Paul. Daniel decided to stay in Erinsborough and try and redeem his uncle. He told Ellis, "Daniel finds it bizarre that Paul isn't well liked, because he is all about the love!"

As Daniel bonded with his uncle, Paul invited him to move into his penthouse apartment. They clashed a little, due to Daniel's different outlook on life. He values relationships over material possessions, which is an odd concept to Paul. Daniel also picked up some shifts in Paul's hotel, but Phillipps pointed out that it was to keep his uncle happy. Daniel found the job too restricting to stay there forever. Phillipps has said that he enjoyed working with Dennis again, following their previous storyline together in 2007. He thought that it was an interesting piece of writing, saying that if Paul was going to imagine someone, it makes sense that the guy looks like his nephew. When Paul suffered a public meltdown due to his grief over Kate's death, Daniel was there to comfort him while he broke down. However, the situation proved too much for Daniel and he had to call in Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher), hoping that his uncle would receive the medical and psychological help he needed. Phillipps later said that helping Paul was "a pretty tough ask" for Daniel and while he thinks of himself as kind of therapist to people, the situation was "pretty extreme". Phillipps added that the storyline presented "an interesting dynamic" for the pair.

Amber Turner

During a behind-the-scenes video posted by Neighbours, Phillipps hinted that Daniel could find romance with established character Amber Turner (Jenna Rosenow), who was in a relationship with Josh Willis (Harley Bonner) at the time. Phillipps later said that Daniel and Amber would become friends, as they bond over their shared love for photography. When Josh began to worry about Daniel's intentions towards his girlfriend, Daniel was "able to put Josh at ease". He and Amber were honest about their connection and passed it off as platonic love. A few weeks later, Amber and Daniel almost shared a kiss, as she started to fall out of love with Josh. Rosenow explained that Amber was attracted to Daniel's caring side and liked how he noticed things about her that Josh never had. When it became difficult for them to be apart, they spent the afternoon together, which resulted in their near kiss. With Amber feeling guilty about betraying Josh, she decided to break-up with him, but when he made a romantic gesture, she found she could not go through with it.

After Amber failed to break-up with Josh, Daniel tried to keep his distance from her. However, Paige Smith (Olympia Valance) had already noticed their growing closeness, so she kissed Daniel to prompt a reaction and work out what was truly going on with them. Amber was "gutted" when she witnessed the kiss and it caused her to give into her feelings for Daniel and they kissed. Daniel was left feeling guilty about Josh and Phillipps commented "He wants to be with Amber, but it's not in his nature to just walk all over people." Phillipps liked that Daniel's first major storyline was a love triangle as it was "quite relatable" for everyone. He thought the reaction to it had been mixed, but there had been support for Amber and Daniel. A few weeks later, Josh walked in on Amber and Daniel kissing. Bonner told an Inside Soap reporter that Josh was devastated by the scene and did not want to hear Amber's apology. Josh eventually went to the penthouse to speak with Daniel and came close to hitting him. He then smashed up Amber and Daniel's darkroom, knowing that is where they had spent a lot of their time together. Phillipps confirmed that Amber and Daniel would stay together despite the fallout and that they would grow closer because of it. The couple were given the portmanteau Damber by fans and critics.

When a tornado hit Erinsborough, Amber and Daniel decided to go out in it to take photographs. Prior to their departure, Daniel fells out with Paul after he told Amber about the origin of Daniel's tattoo, which he got while he was with his ex-girlfriend. As the weather became more severe, Amber and Daniel were caught up in the tornado and the roof of their car was ripped off. They sought shelter in the local garage and later rescued Paul, who came looking for them. Phillipps commented that the situation made Daniel see things clearly and he realised that he wanted to "take things to the next level" with Amber, so he proposed to her. Phillipps told All About Soap'''s Carena Crawford, "He's so happy when she says yes because its exactly what he wants. No matter what happens next, he'll never regret asking her to be his wife." When Amber's parents refused to support the engagement, she decided to move out. Daniel asked her to move into the penthouse with him, but Paul vetoed the plan, so they briefly moved into Daniel's car instead. Phillipps joked that Daniel was "Mr Positive", so he did not let their living arrangements ruin his enthusiasm. Amber struggled with her new living conditions and eventually moved back home.

In October 2014, Daniel's ex-girlfriend Rain Taylor (Airlie Dodds) was introduced, and the official website stated that she would cause "misery" for Daniel. Rain came to Erinsborough to establish a commune called New Eden. However, after befriending Amber, Rain began manipulating her into moving into the commune and giving up her university studies. Amber's mother, Lauren (Kate Kendall), came to Daniel and expressed her fears about Rain's influence on her daughter. Daniel then tried to tell Amber that she was being brainwashed by Rain, but she refused to listen to him. Rain later questioned why Daniel and Amber were together and kissed Daniel in a bid to show him that his relationship with Amber was wrong. When Amber asked Rain for a meditation session, Rain used the opportunity to try and brainwash her into breaking up with Daniel. Rain's plan failed, but her influence left Amber questioning her relationship with Daniel and whether she should try to discover who she really is. When Daniel invited Amber to Queensland to meet his parents, she declined and instead ended their engagement. Shortly after Amber's car was stolen, Daniel came to her rescue, explaining that he sensed she was in trouble. Amber took this as a sign that they were meant to be together and they resumed their relationship.

After they set a wedding date, Harold Bishop (Ian Smith), who was married to Daniel's grandmother Madge (Anne Charleston), returned to Erinsborough for the ceremony. He gave Daniel some advice about marriage, telling him to have "realistic expectations." Phillipps thought that Daniel and Amber were rushing into marriage, but explained that the producers wanted the wedding to air as part of the show's 30th anniversary in March 2015. He thought they should have waited another year. Phillipps also admitted that he did not think Amber and Daniel were well suited, saying "they are very easygoing people and I am not sure if that creates the best sparks." On the day of his wedding, Daniel decided to be "a hopeless romantic" and try to get Amber an antique ring from a well that belonged to his ancestor. Phillipps explained that Amber had been obsessing about the love story connected to the ring and Daniel wanted to give it to her on their wedding day. Daniel and Imogen climbed into the well, but the ladder gave way, trapping them down there and forcing Daniel to miss his wedding. While Daniel worried about Amber, she assumed that he had run off with Imogen. After a few days, Josh worked out where Daniel and Imogen were, and they were rescued, leading to a reconciliation between Daniel and Amber.

Shortly afterwards, Amber discovered she was pregnant, forcing her to admit to Daniel that she had a one-night stand with Josh. Rosenow commented that it was not "an ideal situation" and that Amber hoped the baby was Daniel's, as she wanted their relationship to work. Amber later took a paternity test and Daniel assured her that no matter what the result was, he would support her. However, Daniel was "devastated" when Josh was confirmed to be the father. He tried "to put a brave face on things", but soon realised that he could not support Amber and the baby financially. This gave Josh an opportunity to try and prove himself to Amber, hoping she would come back to him. But Daniel sold some shares in Off Air to lessen his financial troubles. As their relationship became more strained, Daniel attempted to "get things back on track" with a romantic gesture. But they soon realised that too much had changed and decided to break-up.

Imogen Willis
Digital Spy's Daniel Kilkelly noticed a connection between Daniel and Imogen in their first scenes together and Phillipps told him that something could happen between them in the future. He continued, "Imogen gets into twists and gets very worked up about things and Daniel just doesn't get it. He finds it really funny and thinks that Imogen is super sweet. He doesn't get why she finds stuff so frustrating, but he really loves that about her as well." Daniel and Imogen clashed again when she dropped her birthday dress after he ran into her on his skateboard. Daniel bought her a new dress, but it was too big for Imogen and she refused to accept it. Later that day, Imogen accidentally crushed Daniel's skateboard during a driving lesson, but Daniel believed it was her way of getting revenge for the dress. Imogen developed feelings for Daniel after they teamed up for a community project. Phillipps commented that Daniel and Imogen had developed "a great chummy friendship", so he thought Daniel would be surprised to learn that Imogen has feelings for him.

When Daniel comforted an upset Imogen, she leaned in and kissed him. While Daniel was shocked by the kiss, Imogen tried to convince him that it was "a brain snap and nothing more". Daniel then had to choose whether to tell Amber about the kiss or not. Following his break-up with Amber, Daniel had to assure Imogen that it was nothing to do with their kiss. She then tried to convince Daniel to work things out with Amber, but his "unwavering confidence in their love" had been knocked. Kaplan expressed her wish for Imogen and Daniel to become a couple, saying "I have wanted them to be together from the start. I think they balance each other out and Daniel brings out the best in Imogen, so I'm always hoping that it happens secretly!" Phillipps later admitted that Daniel and Imogen were better suited than Daniel and Amber. He thought they should get together and hoped the writers had noticed that there was a demand for them to be a couple on social media sites.

On the day of his wedding, Imogen told Daniel that she was in love with him. Phillipps commented that Daniel took Imogen's confession on board and just went with it. However, after they became trapped in a well, things became awkward between them and they talked it through. Phillipps quipped "poor little Imogen gets let down gently yet again." Both Daniel and Imogen thought they would be found quickly, but when someone shut the grill and water was pumped into the well, they realised that they might die down there. However, they were eventually rescued and Phillipps joked that he was relieved that he still had a job. He added that he enjoyed working on the storyline with Kaplan. When Daniel and Amber ended their relationship for a second time, an Inside Soap columnist noted that Daniel was "understandably" upset by the break up. In an effort to cheer Daniel up, Imogen suggested a day out at a local nature reserve. Daniel thanked Imogen with a kiss, after realising his feelings for her. However, Imogen did not react well as she was unsure if Daniel actually liked her, or she was just his "rebound girl".

Daniel eventually convinced Imogen that he reciprocated her feelings and loved her as much as she loved him. After consummating their relationship, Paul saw them together and was "thrilled that his nephew has found happiness". Despite Imogen wanting to keep the relationship a secret, Paul told her mother Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou) and Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne). Daniel was invited to lunch with the Willis family and he tried his best to impress Terese, but soon realised that it was Imogen's father, Brad (Kip Gamblin), that he needed approval from. Daniel's efforts to impress Brad went wrong when he caused "an unsettling incident" that suddenly ended the lunch.

Dakota Davies' manipulation
When Paul's former lover Dakota Davies (Sheree Murphy) came to town, Daniel became embroiled in her plan to get revenge on Paul and smuggle diamonds into Australia. Dakota convinced Paul to finance a bar for her and she then set out "to ingratiate herself with an impressionable Daniel". Noting Paul's love for his nephew, Dakota offered Daniel the managers job at the bar and he accepted after being persuaded by Paul. They were both unaware that Dakota was planning on setting up Daniel as "the perfect front-man" for their plan. When Daniel was tasked with signing for several shipments of coffee beans, Mark Brennan (Scott McGregor) realised that he was being set up. Shortly before a planned police raid was carried out on the bar, Brennan learned that Daniel was meant to sign for another delivery containing smuggled diamonds, so he told Amber's father, Constable Matt Turner (Josef Brown) in the hope that he could help. Matt then detained Daniel for jaywalking, while the raid went ahead, which infuriated him. Daniel and Amber initially believed that Matt was trying to "punish" them both for the engagement, but they eventually thanked him when he explained that he was only protecting Daniel.

Personality change
In December 2015, Daniel Kilkelly (Digital Spy) revealed plans for Daniel's "good-natured" personality to change as he turned away from his hippy ideals. Daniel changed his look and became more career-driven. Of the changes to Daniel's personality, Phillipps explained: "I think it's an important change that had to happen for Daniel's development. He's always been a positive person, and I don't think that goes away in this storyline. But Daniel has been under Paul's guidance for a long time now. It's made him start to understand some really important life messages about how sometimes you've got to take more risks, be more ruthless and push a little harder. It's all part of Daniel's evolution as a character." Phillipps told Kilkelly that he spoke to the writers about giving Daniel "more status" within the community and believed that making him more career-driven would be a good way for him to gain respect from other characters. The actor also believed that viewers would find Daniel more interesting, but added that his positive attitude would still be there. Daniel began working at Lassiter's Hotel, following his brief stint in real estate sales. He already knew the hotel business from working alongside Paul. Daniel's new attitude and career change was marked by a new haircut. Phillipps had chosen to shave his hair off, so the writers incorporated his new style into the storyline. Phillipps added that he would not like to see Daniel become a copy of his uncle, but he did want Daniel to be "strong-willed and street smart" like him.

Departure
On 16 April 2016, Daniel Kilkelly and Sophie Dainty of Digital Spy confirmed Daniel would be leaving the show, alongside Imogen on 26 April. Phillipps told Sarah Ellis of Inside Soap that it was not his decision to leave Neighbours, and that producers had chosen to write out Daniel so he and Imogen could go together. He explained, "So much negative stuff had happened that the show wanted something positive to come out of it – so with Imogen going, the only real option was for Daniel to go, too."

After Imogen is offered a job in Los Angeles, Daniel is "thrilled" for her and feels like something positive has come along at the right time, following the death of her brother. When they realise that in order for Daniel to go with her, they would need a spouse visa, so Daniel proposes. Daniel and Imogen attempt to get married in secret, but Imogen's parents find out and organise a wedding at Number 22. Phillipps said, "I think the writers also wanted to create a parallel with Daniel leaving Ramsay Street after getting married, just like his parents Scott and Charlene did." He added that there was possibility Daniel could return to Erinsborough in the future, especially as he had to fix his relationship with Paul.

Storylines
While on a road trip, Daniel comes to Erinsborough and sets up camp at Lassiter's Lake. Imogen Willis asks him to move on, but when she finds he has not, she brings Paul Robinson to ask him instead. Paul is happy to see his nephew and asks him to stay. Daniel agrees after seeing how unpopular and lonely his Uncle Paul has become. He starts working at Lassiter's Hotel and he also clashes with Imogen again. Daniel bonds with Amber Turner over their shared love of photography, and Daniel assures her boyfriend, Josh, that they have a platonic connection. However, both Amber and Daniel develop feelings for each other and soon begin an affair. Josh becomes suspicious and finds Daniel and Amber kissing in their dark room. Daniel asks Amber to move in with him, but she feels it is too soon. When Amber and Daniel get caught up in a tornado that hits Erinsborough when they go out to photograph it. Despite arguing beforehand, Daniel proposes to Amber and she accepts. Imogen and Daniel bond when they care for an orphaned wombat.

Daniel finds himself being manipulated by Dakota Davies, who installs him as manager of her new bar. She asks Daniel to sign for a shipment of coffee beans containing diamonds, but Matt Turner detains Daniel for jaywalking so he is not arrested during a police raid on the bar. When Amber's parents and Paul do not support the engagement, Amber and Daniel move into his car. Amber returns home after the car is attacked. Daniel's ex-girlfriend, Rain Taylor, arrives in town to set up a commune called New Eden. Rain tries to manipulate Amber into breaking up with Daniel, before she is driven out of town. While Daniel is comforting Imogen, she kisses him. She apologises and tells him it was a mistake. Amber realises that she wants to discover who she is and refuses to Daniel's invite to meet his parents, ending their engagement. Daniel opens the Off Air bar. Josh competes with Daniel for Amber, while she learns about the kiss with Imogen. After Amber's car is stolen, Daniel comes to her rescue and they renew their engagement.

Harold Bishop visits and admits to having reservations about Amber and the wedding, causing Daniel to rescind his invitation. Paul also tries to stop Daniel from getting married by inviting Des Clarke (Paul Keane) to talk to him about his failed first wedding. On the day of the wedding, Daniel tries to persuade Imogen to attend, but she admits that she is in love with him. Daniel learns the whereabouts of Agnes Robinson's ring and Imogen goes with him to retrieve it from an old well. They become trapped in the well after the ladder breaks, causing Daniel to miss the wedding. The situation in the well grows worse when Imogen's asthma makes it hard for her to breathe and water is pumped in. Josh manages to work out where they are, leading to their rescue. Amber and Daniel reunite, and Amber learns she is pregnant. Amber admits that she had a one-night stand with Josh and a DNA test shows he is the father. Daniel tries to support Amber financially and sells some of his Off Air shares to Karl Kennedy. He and Amber later break-up.

Daniel helps Paul to reunite with his estranged daughter Amy Williams (Zoe Cramond). He also kisses Imogen, but she rejects him, fearing that he might be on the rebound. Daniel becomes jealous when she starts dating Caspar Smythe (Barton Welch) and his feelings for her clear. Imogen and Daniel begin a relationship and he supports her when her parents separate. Daniel moves in with the Brennan brothers at Number 24. He runs a suspended coffee scheme at Off Air, which leads to him being attacked by a homeless man who misinterprets Daniel's attempt to wake him. Daniel refuses to report the man, but he is clearly affected by the incident and displays unusual behaviour. He later takes his anger out on Aaron Brennan (Matt Wilson). Off Air is closed when Daniel struggles to keep up with the payments, and Paul refuses to give him a loan. Daniel finds Aaron and Nate Kinski (Meyne Wyatt) searching through Paul's personal computer files, and they find Paul's plans for a housing estate surrounding Erinsborough High. Daniel sends all the files to the media.

Daniel sells one of the houses from the estate, and Paul gives him a job as a salesman. Imogen voices her concerns about Daniel's changing behaviour, after he convinces Nate to buy a house knowing that certain amenities will not be built. Imogen tells Nate the truth and she and Daniel break up. Daniel also falls out with Paul when he admits to leaking Paul's files to the media. Daniel sees Paul receiving a loan from Dimato for Paul's new business venture. Paul tells Daniel to leave town, which he does without revealing what he knows. He returns with a new hair cut and wants to work at Lassiter's again. Julie Quill agrees to employ him. Daniel and Imogen eventually get back together, but when he works extra hours, she becomes dissatisfied and develops feelings for Tyler. She admits this to Daniel, who decides they take a break and be free to date other people, despite Imogen insisting she would never have acted on her attraction to Tyler. Josh tries to convince Daniel to reconsider the break-up, but Daniel responds by criticising him for his failures as a father, before the hotel boiler explodes, trapping them both under a column. Despite knowing the column is the only thing keeping him from haemorrhaging to death, Josh asks Karl to lift it to save Daniel.

Imogen tells Daniel that Josh died to save him, and they reunite. Daniel is discharged after undergoing surgery. Imogen receives a job offer in Los Angeles and she accepts. Daniel offers to quit his job and go with her. When Imogen mentions spouses can apply for a visa, Daniel proposes and she accepts. Daniel's younger sister Madison Robinson (Sarah Ellen) arrives to check up on him on behalf of their parents. A judge grants Daniel and Imogen an expedited marriage license and they decide to marry in secret. However, Imogen's parents interrupt the ceremony and convince Daniel and Imogen to get married at their home in front of their family and friends. After the wedding, Daniel and Imogen leave Erinsborough for Brisbane to see Daniel's parents, before going to Los Angeles, where Daniel enrols in a university to study nursing.

Reception
For his portrayal of Daniel, Phillipps was nominated for Best Daytime Star at the Inside Soap Awards. The Sydney Morning Herald's Ben Pobjie observed that Daniel's introduction was one of the "most mildly anticipated events" in the show's history and that the character provided a link to the show's past. But he was not keen on his personality, saying "Daniel Robinson is a handsome young thing, whose good looks more than make up for the fact he's an incredibly irritating hippie tosser." Dianne Butler, writing for news.com.au, branded Daniel "a gorgeous blond vision" and suspected he had been introduced in a bid to increase ratings. A Soap World writer thought that Daniel was "idealistic and naive". An Inside Soap columnist observed that the chemistry between Amber and Daniel was "undeniable".

Laura Morgan of All About Soap believed Amber was better suited to Daniel than Josh, as she had "way better chemistry" with him. Morgan said, "from the minute she clapped eyes on Scott and Charlene's sexy son, it was clear they were going to get it on. It definitely didn't take them long either." During a review of the year, Digital Spy's Daniel Kilkelly praised Phillipps for being "a strong actor" and said he deserved "a chance to shine" as Daniel in the new year. Kilkelly bemoaned the lack of challenging storylines for him and hoped he would be given something more to do that did not revolve around his relationship with Amber. When Daniel got stuck in the well, an Inside Soap columnist quipped "What kind of idiot thinks that climbing down a well an hour before his wedding is a good idea? Neighbours' Daniel, that's who!"

References

External links
Daniel Robinson at the Official AU Neighbours website
Daniel Robinson at the Official UK Neighbours'' website

Neighbours characters
Television characters introduced in 2014
Fictional photographers
Fictional surfers
Fictional bartenders
Fictional people from Queensland
Willis family
Male characters in television Daniel Romalotti is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. The role had most notably been portrayed by Michael Graziadei from 2004 to 2013.

Daniel is the son of Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford, Gina Tognoni) and Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian), however a later storyline revealed that Daniel's biological father is a man named Brian Hamilton. Daniel's major storylines have included a love story and marriage with Lily Winters (Christel Khalil, Davetta Sherwood), of which their parents disapproved, as well as being married to Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz). Most recently, Daniel fathered a child named Lucy after the mother, Daisy Carter (Yvonne Zima), raped Daniel. Other storylines include his strong friendship with Kevin Fisher (Greg Rikaart), the death of Cassie Newman (Camryn Grimes), and short-lived romances with Abby Newman (Marcy Rylan, Melissa Ordway) and Eden Baldwin (Jessica Heap).

Casting

The character was first portrayed by twins Desiree and Hannah Wheel from 1994 to 1996, after which Michael McElroy took over the recurring role from 1996 to 1997. Chase MacKenzie Bebak portrayed Daniel from 1997 to 1998, followed by Roland Gibbons, who had a brief stint until the character was written out.

Subsequently, the character was rapidly aged, with Cam Gigandet assuming the role on March 10, 2004. The actor was fired after only a few days, and he last aired as Daniel on May 6, 2004. The role was recast with Owen Beckman, but the actor was also fired soon after landing the role; as opposed to Gigandet, Beckman's scenes were deleted when Michael Graziadei was cast in the role, who debuted on May 10, 2004. In May 2009, Graziadei signed a new contract with the soap, but in 2012, he chose not to renew his contract. He made his last appearance on January 3, 2013. However, Graziadei later reprised the role for four episodes from July 30 to August 2, 2013 to help usher his onscreen mother, Michelle Stafford, out of the series.

In July 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported at Graziadei will briefly return on August 25, 2016, coinciding with The Young and the Restless'''s 11,000 episode.

Storylines
Daniel was born off-screen on August 17, 1993; his birth year has since been revised to 1987. Daniel first arrived in Genoa City in 2004 after returning from boarding school to live with his mother, Phyllis Summers. Because she did not raise him as a child, Daniel resented Phyllis as well as her boyfriend, chemist Damon Porter. Daniel then befriended Kevin Fisher, who was desperate to regain some respect after performing some not so nice deeds. Daniel agreed to help him out in exchange for hooking him up with Mackenzie Browning. The two had a lowlife named Alex come on to Lily Winters too strong, so that Kevin could rescue her and that she would like him. Alex went too far and slipped her a date rape drug and attempted to rape her. However, Kevin did arrive in time to "save" her. When Alex kept threatening Daniel and Kevin, Phyllis found out, and she and Damon scared Alex enough to get him out of town. Daniel then decided to give Phyllis a chance.

Daniel had a romance with Lily Winters in 2005, after he was involved in an accident with Cassie Newman, resulting in her death. Suffering memory loss from the accident, Daniel could not remember that fourteen-year-old Cassie was driving in an ill-fated attempt to drive a drunken Daniel home herself. Daniel and Lily then ran away to Los Angeles to escape vehicular homicide charges, and a Romeo and Juliet-style romance unfolded. The fugitives were caught, and Daniel was soon exonerated. Lily's furious parents, Neil and Dru Winters, soon sent her away to boarding school, leaving Daniel devastated. Lily returned in February 2006, and they reunited and eloped in Las Vegas. Later on, Alex returned to blackmail Daniel and Kevin. Daniel then decided to come clean to Lily, who then told her parents. However, she decided to forgive him as did her parents.

In early 2007, Daniel began a flirtation with the conniving Amber Forrester, of which Lily was unaware. He then began helping her in her mission to keep her new husband, Cane Ashby, so that she could get her hands on his newfound family's money. To say thank you, Amber gave Daniel a pass to watch a video of her on an adult website, which eventually led to Daniel becoming addicted to pornography. After Lily figured out that Amber was the person that had a picture of her naked breasts on Daniel's cellphone, she realized that she couldn't trust her husband any longer and subsequently kicked him out. When Neil found out about Daniel's recent behavior, he fired him from his job at Newman Enterprises. Daniel then moved in with Kevin and Amber.

Daniel, Amber, and Kevin found a princely sum of money ($700,000 to be precise) belonging to Plum,  one of Amber's beaus from her Strangers By Night days. They found the money next to Plum's dead body and decided to keep it all a secret. They then received a visit from John Bonacheck who claimed to be looking for Plum and his money because Plum had stolen it from his war buddy, Carson McDonald. It turned out Bonacheck was a rogue member of the FBI who wanted the money for himself and even kidnapped Amber, Cane and Carson. Once they were rescued, Daniel, Kevin and Amber were arrested.

However, Kevin's brother and lawyer, Michael Baldwin, had the charges against them dropped. All of this commotion caused Daniel and Lily to end their marriage. Lily then began a relationship with Cane, while Daniel soon began a flirtation with A.D.A. Heather Stevens, after she began to show her more sensitive side, which was a big deal considering that she was attempting to prosecute him, Kevin and Amber. She also managed to send his mother to prison for extortion, although she was released after two months. After Daniel threw Heather a party to cheer her up in the midst of her court cases, and he and a drunken Amber had sex.

Since the encounter made their living together awkward, Amber moved out. However, the two were unable to stay away from each other, and they had sex again, which ended with Daniel discovering that Amber had kept some of the stolen money that they got from Plum. Although she tried to convince him and Kevin to keep it, they decided to burn it. Daniel then got Amber a job at his mom, Nicholas Newman, Jack Abbott, and Sharon Newman's new magazine Restless Style.'' While at the launch party for the magazine, Amber helped convince Daniel to mend the rift between him and his father, Danny Romalotti, who came to perform at the event. He and Amber then began an actual relationship. Daniel's father offered him a job on his tour as an assistant photographer, which Daniel accepted.

Daniel returned home on July 10, 2008, and he found out from his girlfriend, Amber, that his mother, Phyllis Summers Newman, had been trying to break them up by making Amber believe that Daniel had been cheating on her. Soon after, she informed him that she slept with Adrian Korbel out of inadequacy, whereupon he angrily and suddenly broke up with her and left her apartment, much to her devastation. He struggled to get over the break-up via rebound dates with Colleen Carlton. On October 15, 2008, Amber and Daniel got back together.
In early 2009, Daniel started his painting and drawing with Amber at his side as a fashion designer. In mid 2009, Daniel was asked to make a fake copy of a 'Terroni,' and he would get paid a sum of money for it. Later, it is believed that he and Jana Hawkes, Kevin's wife, killed the man who asked him to do this in an alley. Daniel managed to stay out of jail long enough to meet Deacon Sharpe, Amber's ex-lover and father of Amber's adopted child, Eric Sharpe, when she was in Los Angeles. Then, Daniel was put in jail, leaving Amber to get him out of jail herself. While Daniel was in jail, he received a phone call from Deacon, claiming to be Michael, Daniel's lawyer. On the other end, he heard Amber and Deacon having sex. When Amber visited him later, he yelled at her, asking her why she did that and what was he supposed to do now that he was going to propose to her. Amber and Daniel consequently broke up. Daniel was soon released, due to the DVD that Deacon sent to the A.D.A, Heather Stevens.

On September 14, 2009, Daniel proposed to Amber, calling her his "soul mate".  Two months later, he and Amber were finally married. The couple ignored the fact that the date was Friday the 13th, which was often associated with bad luck. Their marriage began to fall apart over Amber's obsession of her adoptive son, Eric Forrester Sharpe, and Daisy Callahan's personal obsession with Daniel.
Daisy was the daughter of Sheila Carter and Tom Fisher, making her Kevin's half-sister. She drugged and had sex with a barely conscious Daniel, who thought he was having sex with his wife, Amber, while her aunt, Sarah Smythe, posing as Lauren Fenmore, attempted to kill Phyllis on another scheme with Patty Williams, who was posing as Dr. Emily Peterson. Amber then realized that Daniel didn't betray her. However, her fear over Eric's safety led to her abandoning him, and therefore ending their marriage. Amber left Genoa City with Eric in tow, and a heartbroken Daniel finally gave up on their marriage. Daniel decided not to give up on his friendship with Jana Hawkes just because she and Kevin were getting a divorce. Jana was touched by Daniel's kind words.

Soon after, Daniel began a flirtation with a now grown-up, Abby Newman. In October 2010, a powerful storm hit Genoa City, and Daniel decided to help a worried Abby look for her mother, Ashley Abbott. When the storm became too much, the two took shelter at Crimson Lights. Daisy then returned to town, pregnant with Daniel's daughter. Phyllis did not believe that the pregnancy was possible, and she ordered a paternity test. It was confirmed that Daniel was the father; however, he did not take the news well. He ultimately agreed to have Daisy stay with him until the baby was born, which caused friction between him and Kevin, who planned to become the baby's guardian once she was born, being that the baby would be his niece.

On New Year's Eve, Daniel searched for Daisy when she went into labor and escaped from Jana, who was supposed to be driving her to the hospital. He ultimately found her on the side of the road, stopped on her way to Canada and about to give birth. He helped her deliver their baby girl. As Daniel was holding his daughter, Daisy took a flashlight and hit Daniel over the head with it. He was later found and taken to the hospital for his injuries inflicted by Daisy. A few days later, Daniel was released and brought home.

Meanwhile, Abby was sent to rehab by her parents, Victor Newman and Ashley Abbott, in order for her to keep her mouth shut about the truth regarding Tucker McCall's accident. Upon returning to Genoa City from rehab, Abby tried to reconnect with Daniel, since they both got caught up in their own lives and grew apart. Diane Jenkins arranged for paparazzi to come to GloWorm, where Daniel and Abby were talking. Daniel thought that Abby set the entire thing up as a publicity stunt for her alter ego, the "Naked Heiress". He told her that what they had was over because he didn't want to deal with her constant need for attention.
In February 2011, Daniel found out from a DNA test that Billy and Victoria Abbott's baby daughter, Lucy Abbott, was his biological child. Daisy left her baby in a safe house after she knocked Daniel out. The couple who found the baby gave it to Primrose DeVille in exchange for money. Primrose worked on the black market, selling abandoned children to couples who could afford to skip the adoption process. When Victoria found out that she could not have any more children, Billy decided to adopt a baby girl from Primrose for her, and he paid $2 million for their daughter, Lucy. Upon seeing Lucy, Daniel knew that she was his daughter, which was confirmed after the DNA test. Daniel wasn't sure whether he would let her be raised by Billy and Victoria or if he would file for custody of her. He decided in the end that it was better for Lucy to have Billy and Victoria as her parents because he saw how much that they love her. He did, however, confide in his friend and ex-wife, Lily Ashby, as they have both lost someone that they loved in a way. Being that Lily lost her husband, Cane Ashby, who faked his own death in order to protect Lily and their twins, and Daniel lost his daughter, although that choice was his own.

In May 2011, Lucy and Delia Abbott, Billy's daughter with his ex-wife Chloe Mitchell, were kidnapped by Lucy's nanny, Jana Hawkes. Daniel came clean to both Billy and Victoria about being Lucy's biological father. Daniel then signed away his parental rights, despite the objections of an angry and outraged Phyllis, who wanted custody of Lucy herself, now that she knew that Billy got the baby off the black market. Daniel tried to reason with his mother that he was doing the right thing and that Lucy was with parents that love her. Phyllis, however, refused to listen to Daniel, and she vowed to fight for custody of her granddaughter. On June 17, 2011, Daisy was awarded custody of Lucy with the judge overruling the Abbott's adoption. Daniel was livid at his mother for what she did, and he disowned her. On July 7, 2011, Daniel kissed Lily at Jimmy's Bar, not knowing that Cane was watching. On August 18, 2011, Lily helped Daniel celebrate his birthday with her brother, Devon Winters, Noah Newman and his friend Hunter, and Kevin and his "sister" (Michael Baldwin's half sister who Kevin treats as a sister), Eden Baldwin, at Jimmy's Bar. Lily then took Daniel back to the Athletic Club where she rented a room for the two of them, making it clear that she wanted to pursue a romantic relationship with him. While they were half-naked and making out on the bed, Lily began to flash back to her life with Cane, and she told Daniel that she couldn't have sex with him, and she walked out.

The next day, Lily went to Daniel's apartment to apologize for leading him to believe that she wanted something that she really wasn't sure that she wanted. During their heartfelt talk, the two got caught up in the moment and made love. Daniel told her that he wasn't expecting it, but it just felt right, and she agreed with him. However, Daniel hurt his budding relationship with Lily when he told her father, Neil, that Lily was allowing Cane to visit their children again. Neil then berated Lily for allowing Cane back into her life. Angered that Daniel would tattle on her to her father, she told him that she wanted him to stay away from her. Cane and Lily would later reunite, much to Daniel's dismay. On November 8, 2011 Daniel finds out from Daisy that Avery Bailey Clark is his aunt. Unhappy over Lily's decision to stay with Cane despite his warnings, Daniel turns to Eden Baldwin, who is unhappy over her former boyfriend Noah Newman not wanting to be with her anymore, as a shoulder to cry on. Both talk about their broken relationships, and their friendship becomes something more.

Daniel then finds himself being a source of comfort and support to Chloe Mitchell after Kevin is forced to leave her at the altar, no thanks to a mobster's daughter named Angelina, who has a major crush on Kevin. Daniel continues to be Chloe's shoulder to cry on when she finds out that Kevin is not only back in town but also married to Angelina. Chloe goes to the party being held in their honor at Gloworm and slaps Kevin in the face, leaving him devastated. She then leaves with Daniel. Daniel, with help from Angelina, get Kevin and Chloe back together and watches them marry on March 27, 2012.

Daniel then finds himself in a difficult position when he discovers that Daisy wants custody of Lucy. Phyllis evens goes as far as hiring Ricky Williams to get close to Daisy so that whatever information he gets from her can be used against her in the custody hearing. It proves, however, not to work as Daisy wins custody of Lucy, and Daniel is forced to wait six months before he can try again. Fearing for his daughter's safety, Daniel proposes to Daisy, who accepts, and the two elope. The marriage proves to be an unhappy one as Daisy is happy to finally have what she wants while Daniel is only married to her for Lucy's sake. Deeply hurt over her husband's unwillingness to love her and his mother's hatred of her, Daisy decides to team up with Ricky Williams to get him to help her and Lucy leave town. However, when Daisy turns up missing, Daniel is the prime suspect despite the fact that Ricky is the one setting him up.

Daniel, despite his ill-will towards Daisy, regrets that she has died for Lucy's sake. He is forced to come to terms with the fact that his mother attempted to kill Paul and Christine in 1994. And on top of all of this, he has begun to develop new feelings for Heather, although things get complicated as she is leading the case against Phyllis. Daniel and Heather ended up kissing several times, which angered Phyllis, calling Daniel a traitor to their family. To appease the public, Daniel and Heather agreed to start dating in private.

After a lengthy period of absence (which according to Christine, is because he went back to Chicago to search for Daisy, who had been residing at Fairview, very much alive, but was recently released), Daniel returned to Genoa City and announced that he and Heather would be moving with Lucy to Savannah, Georgia. Daniel made his last appearance on January 3, 2013. Daniel returned six months later, in July 2013, when Phyllis fell into a coma. He made known his intentions to take Phyllis to a facility outside of Savannah where she would be taken care of; despite resistance from Avery, Phyllis' loved ones eventually agree to let Daniel take his mother back with him to Georgia.

Since then, Daniel has been mentioned infrequently whenever characters go to visit Phyllis in Georgia. Most recently, after Phyllis awoke from her coma and escaped her treatment facility, Jack Abbott called Daniel to clue him in. In August 2016, Daniel briefly returned to Genoa City to attend the engagement party of his half-sister Summer Newman and her fiance Luca Santori, before their engagement was called off when it was revealed by Victoria's boyfriend Travis Crawford that Luca was responsible for the destruction of the oil rigs owned by Newman Enterprises, and Luca was arrested for that crime and sent to prison. He also met Cassie's long-lost twin sister Mariah Copeland, and he told her of how he was involved in Cassie's death. He later also visited his old friend Kevin before he left town again to go back to Savannah, GA, and gave him advice about his rekindled relationship with Chloe and also met her daughter Bella.

See also 
Daniel and Lily

References 

The Young and the Restless characters
Television characters introduced in 1994
Fictional adoptees
Fictional artists
Male characters in television