Daniel J Townsend – CV
AFMA Solo Folk Artist of the Year finalist (2021, 2024)
Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Award (2018)
Rural NT Secondary Teacher of the Year (2017)

2026:

• Ecopoetic Workshop Series: Free monthly workshops, funded by Inspiring Tasmania
• Island Readers and Writers Festival: Ends of the Earth with Robbie Arnott, Danielle Wood and Hannah Kent (sold out)
• Festival of Voices: Speed Dating with Composers with Meg Washington and Jenny Mitchell
• Song Circle: Fortnightly songwriters’ community in my nipaluna/Hobart home, established 2022

 
2024 – 2025

• Living Light (EP) Recorded live in one session at Frying Pan Studios with a 7-piece band, project made possible by the Australian Government Regional Arts Fund
• The Eye Begins to See (album) Crowdfunded, two singles in AMRAP Metro Top 5, 20-date Australian tour
• Nothing is Enough (live album) Twenty-year retrospective, available on limited run of 20 cassettes
• Commissions and collaborations:
  • SS St Louis 1939 chosen for International Holocaust Remembrance Day (USA)
  • Musselroe Bay: featured on ABC TV show ‘Back Roads’
  • Soon I Will Sing You a Song: performed by choirs at Festival of Voices 2025 and 2026
  • Invited by ABC Hobart to perform my song Bridgewater Jerry at opening of new Bridgewater Bridge
• Festivals: Cygnet (TAS), Tamar Valley (TAS), Mount Roland (TAS), Kangaroo Valley (NSW)

 
2022 – 2023

• Whispering Walls: Commission and collaboration with Van Diemen’s Fiddles
• Audiobook Producer: Cosmos Magazine
• Teacher-Advisor: Hobart Big Picture Academy
• Workshop host:
  • How to Inspire (Centacare)
  • Rhyme and Reason (DECYP)
  • The Artist’s Way online course

• Festivals: Tasmanian Poetry Festival (TAS), Mount Roland (TAS), Kiama (NSW), Tamar Valley (TAS), Fleurieu (SA), Kangaroo Valley (NSW), Tablelands (QLD)

2020 – 2021

• Broken Voices and The Eyes of Men: Collaborative video project and stage show with 8 artists (VIC-TAS)
• Midland Highway: The Musical (album) Collaboration with ABC Radio Tasmania
• Songs From the Great Pause (EP)
• Our Songs: collaborative online songwriting project with fans during lockdown
• Faxes to a Young Songwriter: book of stories and advice for anyone pursuing a life in music
• An Uncertain Shore: poetry anthology

2017 – 2019

• A Tale of Two Cities: The first album in the world released as a podcast, with a stage adaptation for Darwin Fringe with NT-based videographers and award-winning musicians. Watch a short video here.
• A Song in 60 Minutes: collaborative songwriting workshops

• Music Teacher: Taminmin College (NT)
• Teacher: OutTeach, Save The Children (TAS)
  • Co-recipient of Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Award 2018
• Festivals: National Folk Festival (ACT), Majors Creek (NSW), NT Writers’ (NT), Australian Poetry Slam Final (NSW), Tablelands (QLD), Fleurieu (SA), Darwin Festival (NT), Healesville (VIC), Fleurieu (SA), Cygnet (TAS), Darwin Fringe (NT), Junction Arts (TAS), Beyond (ACT), Nannup Music (WA)

2013 – 2016

• Song Factory: immersive workshop and show
• World Until Yesterday (concept album) – “New and notable,” NoiseTrade
• Iscariot (concept album) – “Incredible,” The Inside Sleeve

  
"Daniel J Townsend is real deal good. A fabulously talented, literate and nuanced songwriter and singer."
Stuart Coupe, music journalist

"Sustained, jaw-dropping brilliance."
Pete Hay, poet

“Incredible.”
Inside Sleeve, ABC RN