© 2003 Jim Newman

“Lentz realizes the promise of new music in a particularly radical way; the very succession of sounds suggests a society more friendly and constructive than the mad machine in which we presently live.” – Village Voice, July 30, 1985

In his student years at Brandeis University, Lentz was awarded a composition fellowship to work at Tanglewood in the summer of 1966. He spent 1967-68 abroad as a Fulbright Fellow in Electronic Music in Stockholm, Sweden. The following year Lentz accepted a visiting lectureship at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In 1970 he began devoting more of his time to composition and performance, founding and directing the California Time Machine, a conceptual music ensemble based in Santa Barbara. The CTM toured the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe. Lentz also founded and directed the San Andreas Fault, an ensemble comprised of voices, keyboards and real-time electronics. The ensemble made several tours of the U.S., Great Britain, Scandinavia, and Western Europe, also recording for many European radio companies.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, Lentz founded and directed the Daniel Lentz Group. The ensemble has been featured on many commercial CD recordings and several TV spots, and toured extensively in the U.S., Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia. Its instrumentation has varied over the 18 years of its existence, from as few as four performers to as many as 18. The DLG was especially prominent in its revolutionary use of "live multi-track recording" in its performances in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1972 Lentz won the First Prize in the International Composers Competition (Stichting Gaudeamus) in Holland. In 1979 Lentz received a D.A.A.D. residency grant to live and work in West Berlin. He has been the recipient of numerous other awards, grants, and commissions from groups such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Zeitgeist Ensemble to name a few. Lentz’s music has been recorded on numerous labels including Angel-EMI Records.

Lentz's music from his years in Los Angeles is generally fast-paced and upbeat (like L.A. itself), as heard in pieces such as Talk Radio, Wild Turkeys and The Crack in the Bell. Since moving from Los Angeles to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona his music has undergone a major metamorphosis. Recent works, such as the Temple of Lament, Apologetica, A Tiger In The Garden, and The Insect reflect these changes, evoking the desert and involving the listener in their dark intensity.