A lifelong symphony: How an engineer's passion for music led to a Hollywood award

HOLLAND — For most of his life, Daniel Fisher has lived a double life. 

By day, an engineer; by night, a composer. But after a decades-long journey of balancing a professional career with a private passion, the two worlds have converged, with Fisher earning an outstanding honor: The Hollywood Independent Music Award for "Contemporary Classical" for his composition, "Symphonina No. 2." 

The award is just the latest in a series of accolades for Fisher, who has also been recognized by the Global Music Awards, the Akademia Music Awards, and the One World Music Radio Awards.

The Nebraska native, who moved to Holland in 1978 for a job at the former Donnelly Corp., was presented the award on July 30 at a ceremony at the Avalon in Hollywood, California. 

It was the culmination of a lifelong love of music that started in his youth. Though his musical skill never incorporated formal lessons, he said music was a constant in his life. 

“It was really a surprise and excitement all rolled into one,” Fisher said of receiving the award. “It was an emotional rush and quite an honor.” 

Fisher’s journey to the July honor spanned over many different parts of the world as his father was in the military.

The now 72-year-old composer started playing by ear at age 5 and year after year began to pick up a little more skill. 

As a teen, Fisher played keyboards in a rock band as a teenager in Guam during the Vietnam War, performing for wounded soldiers in the naval hospital. 

“It was quite a scene. These guys were shot and broken and burned and everything else, and we'd go down there and play the rock and roll music of that time,” he said. 

“The doctors would say that our music was more powerful than any medicine they could give them. It really uplifted the spirits of the people there. I learned a lot from that, too, just learning what kind of music people like and that music can have a powerful impact on a person's well-being. I really believe that's true.”

After selling his band equipment to pay for college, where he studied engineering, Fisher continued to pursue music as a hobby. 

He started writing his own music on an old upright piano. When he got married, he composed four piano pieces for his wedding and used the wedding gift money to buy a grand piano.

Shortly after that, there was a major advancement in music and it changed everything for Fisher: Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI  is an American-Japanese technical standard that connects a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music.

“I could hook my computer up to a digital keyboard with some music scoring software. I could actually write the music on the computer, hit a button, and it would play the musical instrument,” he said. 

With MIDI, Fisher realized the sky was the limit when it came to creating music. 

“It just continued to grow from there. I kept writing bigger and bigger pieces until I got full orchestras with strings, woodwind, percussion, brass — all of it. It was quite fun, and I was doing all this while I was working as an engineer,” he said. 

“When people would ask me what I do, I’d tell them I'm an engineer, a composer and a world traveler. When I was doing engineering, I traveled all over the world. On those flights, everybody would be sleeping, but I would be writing music. I just loved to do that. I wasn't doing it for any big thing, just for the pure joy and fulfillment of writing music. That was really fun for me.”

His journey as a composer took a significant turn in 2010 when he met internationally known composer and pianist Ian Mulder. Mulder, impressed by Fisher's music, encouraged him to pursue it more seriously.

Years later, Fisher was invited to record his piece "Stealing the Night" with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London.

"It was like this super crash course in orchestral composition," Fisher said of the experience. "It was absolutely stunningly surreal and emotional and amazing." 

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Over the next six years, Fisher continued to record his music with renowned groups, including the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This work culminated in his first professional album, "Places Far Away," which reached No. 3 on the Billboard charts. The album's title was inspired by his extensive travels as an engineer, having flown over a million miles and visited countries like China and Japan numerous times. 

"I wasn't doing it for any big thing, just for the pure joy and fulfillment of writing music was really fun for me,” he said. 

The award-winning piece, "Symphonina No. 2," is featured on the album "Ascension: Symphonina Rising," produced by the Symphonina Foundation. The foundation's mission is to make symphonic music more accessible to younger audiences by introducing the "symphonina" format, a shorter composition designed to be more digestible for modern listening habits.

Fisher still resides in Holland where he raised three children with his wife, Kay. To learn more about his music, visit his website here.

— Heather VanDyke covers northern Ottawa County for the Ottawa News Network. Contact her at hvandyke@ottawanewsnetwork.org.