Founder · 2020 – 2026
Deep Playa NYC
50+ events for up to 1,200, including NYC’s largest overnight outdoor rave.
Electronic Press Kit
DanielaStarcat
The Soundtrack of Sunrise
Melodic & Progressive House · Latin House · Deep House
Afro House · Acid · Techno
DJ · Producer · Creative Director
New York City
What sets her apart
Not a set.
A journey.
- 01
Emotional architecture
Cinematic sets that move a room through tension, release and euphoria.
- 02
Genre-fluid by nature
Melodic and progressive at sunrise, acid and techno after dark, and always one unexpected classic.
- 03
Fluent in every room
Professor, corporate leader, venue director. She speaks the language of each.
About the artist
A New Yorker with the city’s dance floors in her DNA
Classically trained on piano from age three, Daniela fell for techno and house at ten and has been collecting music ever since. She learned to mix on vinyl at Satellite Records, came of age on the floors of Limelight, Twilo, Sound Factory and David Mancuso’s Loft, and sharpened her ear living in Berlin and Milan.
50+
events produced and DJed
1,200
peak attendance, Deep Playa NYC
8 hrs
marathon sets, sunrise to sunset
The sound
Range is her superpower
Daniela plays immersive, genre-fluid underground dance music, weaving hypnotic progressive grooves, melodic tension, organic and Afro-influenced rhythms, and left-field electronic discoveries into emotionally charged journeys. Her sets balance deep atmosphere with driving energy, unexpected turns with satisfying payoffs, and underground credibility with a sense of wonder. Built for dance floors that love to travel.
Melodic & Progressive House
Ethereal, emotional, made for sunrise
Deep, Afro & Latin House
Warm, rhythmic, built to get people moving
Acid & Techno
Driving, hypnotic late-night energy
The wild cards
French house, amapiano, Fleetwood Mac
Lineage: Danny Tenaglia · Laurent Garnier · DJ Harvey · Kölsch · DJ Koze
Bookings
Open for
Corporate & private events
Receptions, galas and celebrations, tuned to the guests and the run of show.
Festivals & stages
Main stages, art cars and open-air floors that read and lift a big crowd.
Sunrise & sunset sets
Her signature: marathon journeys timed to the light, from 90 minutes to 8 hours.
Clubs, rooftops & boats
Opening, headline or closing sets for rooms that let a night unfold.
Cultural institutions
Museum nights and site-specific commissions with in-character performance.
Creative direction
Experience design, programming and stage builds, including her own 360° booth.
Signature projects
Worlds she has built
Music Director · 2022 – 2025
CAMP Festival
Music Director, stage designer and headlining DJ, four years running.
Creator · 2022 – 2025
Her Name Is Shakti
A Brooklyn series championing all-female talent, behind the decks and beyond.
Commission · The Mütter Museum
Choreomania
The dancing plague of 1518, reimagined
Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum commissioned Daniela to create a four-hour Halloween performance in its historic ballroom. Built around the four medieval humors and the four seasons, it is an open-to-close DJ journey woven with immersive ritual theatre, with Daniela directing the lighting, décor and musical arc.
Invited back · October 30, 2026
Credentials
A proven track record
Festivals & stages
CAMP Festival · Elements Festival · Burning Man art cars Blockhaus and Mystic Flyer · Love Burn
Rooms & institutions
The Mütter Museum · Elsewhere · Xanadu · The Meadows · Brooklyn Monarch · The Chocolate Factory · Bogart House
Shared decks & stages with
Nick Warren · The Blessed Madonna · Blond:ish · Yokoo · ÜNAM · Manumat · Lovecraft · Wild Dark · Soul Summit · Peces Raros · Allen Hulsey
Beyond the decks
Fluent in every room
Before returning to music, Daniela earned a PhD, taught as a professor and led teams in tech. She switches codes as easily as she switches tracks.
Academic rigor
A PhD and years as a professor: she plans a set’s arc the way she once built a curriculum.
Business acumen
Corporate leadership and two Brooklyn venues run: she reads a P&L as fluently as a room.
Designer & builder
Festival stages for CAMP and Deep Playa, and a 360° DJ booth she designed and built.
Community steward
Burning Man’s NY Regional Contact, burning since 2012, and founder of Catapult Community.
Bookings & partnerships
Let’s co-create something
magical and meaningful.
Bookings
General
Listen
Tech rider: 2× Pioneer CDJ-3000 · DJM-A9, DJM-V10 or DJM-900NXS2 · sets of 2 to 8 hours · creative direction and stage design available