Daahoud Salim
Daahoud Salin is a jazz and classical pianist and composer.
As a jazz composer he received the 1st Prize in the Big Band Composition and Arrangment Competition Fundación SGAE/ Asociación Ool-ya-koo (2022). In 2024 he received two other international awards: the 2025 ISJAC/USF EBC Prize, from the International Society for Jazz Arrangers and Composers, in the U.S.; and the 2nd Prize in the Tete Montoliu Jazz Composition Competition. Great European jazz ensembles such as the Danish Radio Big Band and the Jazz Station Big Band (BE) have played his music. He conducts his own music with international big bands in Europe
As a jazz player, in 2015 he founded the Daahoud Salim Quintet, a jazz ensemble which has already performed in some of the most prestigious stages and festivals in the world, such as Dizzy’s Club/Jazz at the Lincoln Center NY, Keystone Korner (Baltimore), Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Auditorio Parco dalla Musica (Rome), Athens Jazz Fest, Madrid International Jazz Festival, Teatros Canal, Jamboree, etc. In 2016 the band is awarded in the 40th edition of Getxo Jazz Festival, with the 1st Prize for the Best Band and Best Soloist Prize. In 2017 the DSQ receives the 1st Prize for the Best Band and the Sabam Culture Prize, for the Best Arrangement, during the B-Jazz Contest, in Leuven, Belgium. In 2025 the band receives the Spanish Jazz Platform Prize. He has performed with elite jazz musicians such us Maria Schneider, Hermeto Pascoal, Darcy James Argue, former member of the Jazz Messengers Bobby Watson, etc...
As a classical composer, he has received commissions from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Seville Royal Symphony Orchestra, Keep an Eye Foundation, GrachtenFestival, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Spanish Association for Symphony Orchestras, Fundación SGAE, La Schubertiada, Festival Bal y Gay, Extremadura Symphony Orchestra, Almería Symphony Orchestra, Andalusia Youth Orchestra and other ensembles such as Fuse! or Solar Duo. World-class classical interpreters such as Martin Fröst, Casals Quartet, Juan Pérez Floristán, Pablo González or Rosanne Philippens have played and premiered his music. His compositions have been performed in the US, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Andorra, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Nepal, Taiwan, Denmark, Estonia, Poland, Portugal, etc. In 2022 he received two international composition awards: 1st Prize in Tapiola Choir Choral Composition Competition and as a classical pianist, he has performed in some of the main venues in Europe: Concertgebouw, Palau de la Música de Catalunya (Barcelona), Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, etc. He has received various awards, such as 1st prize in the International Piano Competition “Ciutat de Carlet”, and the GrachtenFestival Conservatorium Concurs, among others. He has also played as a soloist with some orchestras in Spain and Holland with conductors such as Michael Thomas, Álvaro Albiach and the American conductor Andrew Grams. He has also recorded an album with pieces by E. Schulhoff with the Dutch label Challenge.
As a teacher, he is currently teaching classical and jazz piano at ELCAMM, a higher music studies school in Málaga. In 2018 Daahoud became Academic Director and teacher of the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, in Nepal, where he remained working until 2020. The goal of this school is preparing young people who want to become professional musicians to do higher music studies abroad, since there is no such a possibility in the country. In the last five years over 20 of his students were accepted in Conservatories in The Netherlands (The Hague, Maastricht, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam), Switzerland (Basel) and Australia. More than fifteen managed to go and study there, and already three finished their studies successfully. In 2012 he founded the Asociación AyudArte, which organized artistic events with charity purposes. In 2016 association gathered enough funds to fincanciate the construction of a drinkable-water well in a small village in southern Chad, with the collaboration of ONGD David Russell y María Jesús, led by the famous classical guitarrist.