Danny was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, in 1978, and has been profoundly deaf since birth. He is a pianist, having gained his grade 8 whilst still at school. In 1998, Danny was accepted at Keele University to read a music and French degree and has studied at the Université d'Amiens in France.

In 2000, Danny was awarded a Jack Ashley Millennium Fellowship to research music and deafness in Brazil. Shortly afterwards, he began working as Education Projects Manager at the charity, Music and the Deaf, which helps deaf people to access music and performing arts.

In 2006, Danny founded the West Yorkshire Deaf Youth Orchestra and similar ensembles are now running in the North West, Peterborough and London. In 2008, he conducted the 'Hi-Notes Ensemble', a group of deaf young musicians, at the Royal Albert Hall's National Festival of Music for Youth. Much of Danny's work at Music and the Deaf has been focussed on making music accessible to Deaf children in educational settings. He researched music provision for deaf children in their early years and wrote a guide for teachers called Keys to Music - Making Music with Deaf Children in Early Years. Danny is passionate about raising awareness of music and deafness. In 2010, he was a contestant on Sky 1's Must be the Music and reached the semi-finals.