Dr Danielle Bentley is an award-winning cellist specialising in Australian art music. Danielle was the Australian Arts Fellow at Omi Music Residency, New York (2018) & is a recipient of an APRA-AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence. Danielle has performed, toured and recorded with some of Australia’s and the world’s most popular musicians, as well as working for flagship classical ensembles and independent creative projects across the nation. Alongside being a cellist, Danielle has managed and curated seven multi-day art music festivals at Brisbane Powerhouse, Metro Arts, and QLD Conservatorium, including four editions of her own event, Restrung.


Orchestral experience includes contractual work with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (8 years), Camerata of St John’s (5 years), Opera Australia, Paris Opera Ballet, Opera Queensland, Australian Ballet, and Cologne Philharmonic. She is Principal Cello in Queensland for Philharmonia Australia (12 years) and was a Director of critically-acclaimed art music ensemble Collusion (2011-2017). Bentley Strings performed for Queen Elizabeth II & the Duke of Edinburgh during their Brisbane visit in 2011.
Danielle has also performed with a long list of popular international and Australian stars including Jimmy Barnes, Kanye West, Harry Connick Jnr, Diana Krall, Missy Higgins, Kate Miller-Heidke and Sarah Blasko.

Danielle has a Bachelor of Music (cello), Masters in Creative Industries (Creative Enterprise and Entrepreneurship) and completed her PhD in 2011 on the Restrung New Chamber Festival: an exploration of contemporary string practice. Danielle was nominated for an Outstanding Thesis Award. The 2nd and 3rd editions of Restrung took place at the Powerhouse in 2012 and 2017, and the 4th was it its new home Metro Arts, 2021.

Danielle has managed and co-curated three events at Queensland Conservatorium: in 2013, the International Music Council’s 5th World Forum on Music (WFM5) which was host to over 150 panels and performances, 12 satellite conferences, a music bazaar and several other major events; and in 2012 and 2014, she managed and curated Crossbows small ensembles festival. She was a Queensland Conservatorium Research Fellow in 2014.

Grants and scholarships include: Institute for Creative Industries & Innovation (iCi) scholarship; QUT Postgraduate Research Award; QUT Grant-in-Aid to fund a 6-week European festival research trip; Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre grants for Restrung (2012) and for participation in the European Festival Association’s Atelier for Young Festival Managers (Edinburgh 2014); six Australia Council grants and a Creative Sparks grant for Restrung.

With Collusion, Danielle has recorded three CDs: Flashpoint – featuring Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and Hindemith’s clarinet and piano trio (2012); I Read the Old Dream Slowly —a collection of Australian works (2012); and Transient Beauty — sound track to the chamber ballet (2014). Collusion also performed the sound track for Ward of State (2015). Danielle played a starring role in Collusion’s three chamber ballets: Transient Beauty (2012 and 2014); DesireLines (2015, shortlisted for an Australian Dance Award); and the Collusion/QLD Ballet production Muscle Memory (Judith Wright Centre, 2016).

Recent recorded releases include Stephen Adams’ Sunset Inside the Listening Room (on vinyl); Alistair Noble’s Tiangong for Cello & Piano Mill (Bandcamp); & Lisa Cheney’s Owl & the Pussycat (CD). 2020 saw Danielle develop a strong teaching portfolio and commence the Bentley + Scott project with fellow cellist Oliver Scott.

In 2021, amongst many other projects, Danielle staged the fourth edition of Restrung, October 14-16, at its new home at Metro Arts, West End (featuring William Barton, Clcoked Out, Topology, and many more); maintained a busy teaching schedule at her home studio, both in person and online; and performed in a multitude of projects including the critically-acclaimed Cooktown Cantata and a house concert series alongside pianist Leanne Swanson and clarinettist Diana Tolmie.