About

Daniel Aguirre Evans is an experienced and motivated freelance arts administrator, producer and surtitler currently based in Cardiff, Wales. 

Previous roles have provided him with a great overall grounding in arts administration generally, but his particular strengths and experiences are in artistic planning, producing, orchestral management, concert duty, artist liaison and project coordination.

In addition, he has developed considerable experience and knowledge of opera surtitling and theatrical captioning work in recent years, alongside his arts administration portfolio of work. 

Daniel is currently actively seeking new freelance opportunities throughout Wales and the wider UK. If you have a particular project or role in mind, or would like to discuss options of how to go about applying this skillset to your organization, please get in touch.

Since Spring 2022, Daniel has pursued a busy freelance career in the arts sector, working for a wide variety of organizations all across Wales and the wider UK. His work has including a series of seasonal / temporary roles including Special Projects & Assistant Producer for the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Summer 2022, Acting Orchestra Manager for the City of London Sinfonia during the Opera Holland Park season in Summer 2023, Production Coordinator / Orchestra Manager for the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Summer 2024, as well as two stints as Interim Artistic Planning Officer for Welsh National Opera in Autumn 2023 and again from Autumn 2024-Summer 2025. In October 2025, he took up the new role of Festival Administrator with the Gŵyl Beaumaris Festival in North Wales.

Alongside his arts administration work, Daniel has also developed a wide portfolio of opera surtitling and theatrical captioning work, including an extensive collaboration with Welsh National Opera, several projects with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,  a world-premiere commission with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group / Opera 21, and performances for Garsington Opera. He has also worked on Welsh-language theatre captions including Anthem for the Wales Millennium Centre and Pijin / Pigeon for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, as well as student masterclasses, training and mentoring about opera surtitling with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Daniel graduated from the University of Manchester in July 2013 with BSocSci Politics & International Relations (Hons); including a 1st Class mark for his final year dissertation “The United Nations Security Council: A Gordian Knot and the Politics of Reform”.

Following graduation, Daniel moved to Cardiff to pursue a career in the arts and began with internships with National Youth Arts Wales and then with Welsh National Opera. He joined the orchestra management team at WNO in his first salaried role in December 2013 as Secretary to Chorus & Orchestra Management (Maternity Cover).

In August 2014, following the departure of WNO’s Orchestra Manager, Daniel’s role was changed to Orchestra Administrator until March 2015, serving as de facto Orchestra Manager during this period. Highlights of his first 2-year period at WNO included an exciting New Year’s Day Concert tour to Dubai, as well as discovering the score of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.

Spring of 2015 saw him move across the Irish Sea to take up the position of Planning Manager & Artist Liaison with the Ulster Orchestra. Highlights of his time in Belfast included the 50th Anniversary celebrations for the orchestra which culminated in a phenomenal 50 Concerts in a Day all across the city, at which he was the heart of the near-impossible planning and delivery.

In August 2017 he was pulled back to his spiritual home in Cardiff, and took up the role of Assistant Orchestra & Concerts Manager with Welsh National Opera once more. Highlights of this second period with WNO included memorable tours to the Hong Kong International Arts Festival and also to the Janáček Brno Festival.

In May 2019, Daniel relocated to West Yorkshire, to take up the position of Orchestra Manager with Opera North. Highlights of his time in Leeds included performances of Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at Huddersfield and Leeds Town Halls, as well as the outdoor Millennium Square Summer Series.

With the outbreak of the pandemic, Daniel moved closer to home to take up a role as Music Operations & Business Development Manager with Theatr Clwyd Music in Mold, North Wales. After a career wholly spent at the professional end of the performing arts scene, Daniel was thrilled to help establish the former Flintshire Music Service within their new organizational home, and help steer local peripatetic music teaching through a challenging period.

Daniel is originally from Wrexham, North East Wales and comes from an unusual fusion of Welsh and Mexican-American heritage. He is a double bass player for his sins too, and is regularly seen all over the amateur and
semi-professional circuit including recent performances with Wrexham Symphony Orchestra, Chester Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Cardiff Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.

His experiences throughout the youth pyramid structure in Wales including as Principal Bass of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, and as Programming Manager of the university’s Music Society were what spurred him on to pursue a career in arts administration and orchestra management, despite initially planning for a career in the diplomatic service!

Having benefited from free peripatetic instrumental lessons from his local county music service in Wrexham from the age of 11-16, he remains steadfast and passionate in his commitment and support to the principal of free-at-the-point-of-delivery music opportunities and education within schools for all children, of all backgrounds, and the positive role the arts can play in young people’s lives.

To that end he co-founded North Wales Camerata in the Autumn of 2013, to raise money for continuing youth music provision throughout Wales. During 7 years of activity, they successfully donated over £2,500 to local and national youth music organizations.

If he had the choice to do something different with his life it would either be as a diplomatic official within the United Nations secretariat (see photo from a previous life as a student delegate to the World Model UN conference whilst at university!) or as a professional bassist in an orchestra with a healthy appetite for Mahler and Strauss.

Away from work Daniel is an avid follower of the Welsh Rugby team as well as the England (+Wales!) Cricket Team – both of which can often prove to be tests of endurance, a form of torture and occasional unexpected joy! When not on duty he is also a frequent opera and concert-goer as well as gig attendee, and in 2024 was amongst the top 0.05% of listeners worldwide of Puccini according to Spotify!

Music is his enduring passion