Daniel Hawkins

Hawkins currently holds the position of Utility Horn with the San Francisco Symphony since 2017 and, in the 2019/20 Season, held the position of Associate Principal Horn with the SFS. Prior to this appointment, Hawkins served with the San Antonio Symphony, Houston Symphony, Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Meadows Symphony Orchestra and Southern Arkansas Symphony. Daniel Hawkins just recently won First Place in the International Horn Competition of America in 2022, was the award winner of the Music Teacher’s National Association Young Artist Competition in 2014 and won the Meadows School of the Arts Undergraduate and General Concerto Competition in 2012 and 2015.

A native of Chandler, Texas, Hawkins began playing the horn at age 11, and took lessons with Dr. Charles Gavin at Stephen F. Austin State University at age 15. Hawkins studied at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University from 2012-2015, receiving a Bachelor of Music, and continued his studies at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where he received his Master of Music. Hawkins’s teachers include DSO Second Horn Haley Hoops (Becky & Brad Todd Chair), former DSO Principal Horn Greg Hustis, and William VerMeulen at Rice University.