Dan Becker composes music (he loves writing for the Friction Quartet), studies music (he received his MM and DMA from Yale), teaches music (at the JAYCP and formerly the SF Conservatory) organizes music (as founder of the Common Sense Composers' Collective), and advocates for new music (he’s served on the Boards of several New Music organizations including the American Music Center and Other Minds.)

A solo CD of his chamber works titled FADE was released on the Innova label in 2014 and was rated as the #1 New Music Classical Recording for that year by NYC’s Big City Blog. His critically-acclaimed work “Revolution,” for solo pianist and prepared disklavier piano --(“a dynamic whirlwind of a piece”-Kosman, SF Chron.) – is featured on Kathleen Supové’s CD “The Exploding Piano.” Other commissions include a collaborative dance work for Garrett+Moulton Productions featuring music written for the Friction Quartet and a Common Sense/Banff-sponsored collaborative project with the Afiara String Quartet. Awards and grants include those from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Meet the Composer, the Banff International String Quartet Competition, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, among many others.

Most recently, in the spirit of “desperate times call for…”, Becker has “instigated” a sub-genre of new music he calls “Compositional Journalism”. A concept both old and new, he is building a large body of pieces that explore different ways of addressing socio-political issues in a musical composition. To support and inform this work, he is currently involved in several United Nations related projects. These range from serving on the Board of the Directors of the United Nations Association where he helps to conceive and present events on world affairs, to writing OpEd essays for UN-Connected journals and producing podcasts related to United Nations issues.