Daniel Hensel (born 17 April 1978 in Büdingen) is a German composer, VJ, musicologist and music theorist. He is known as a composer of expressive works of all musical genres whose works can be dedicated to "a thread of a tradition leading from Schubert via Mahler to Hensel's teacher Schedl in presence.[...]" His style contains all kinds of material, such as traditional tonal or harmonic as well as noise and electronic material. His works are published by Musikverlag Doblinger in Vienna.

Hensel is a descendant of a family of musicians of light and rock music. His maternal family lives in the city of Buedingen since 1594. Hensel began his studies of composition in 1995 as a student of the Austrian composer Gerhard Schedl at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium. From 1999 on he studied composition with Heinz Winbeck in Würzburg, and later with Manfred Trojahn in Düsseldorf where he graduated with distinction. Postgraduate studies with Michael Obst followed at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt", Weimar. He concluded his studies in musical composition in Winbeck's masterclass. In 2009 Hensel began to study musicology with Peter Ackermann and wrote a dissertation on the music of Gerhard Schedl. Hensel obtained his doctorate with "magna cum laude" on 13 July 2011.

Hensel's music was played by artists such as Carin Levine and Markus Bellheim, the Ensemble Modern, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, and conductors such as Manfred Honeck. Several pieces were composed on behalf of festivals such as the A•DEvantgarde-Festival, young-euro.classic or Kasseler Musiktage, or institutions such as the Carl Orff Center Munich or Staatstheater Stuttgart and broadcast by several German radio stations.

In 2007, his piece "Refexions for Orchestra" was the official German musical contribution for the handover of the EU-council presidency from Germany to Portugal. The piece was played by the young sound forum of central Europe and was conducted by Sebastian Weigle. In 2008 Manfred Honeck conducted Hensel's "Chant of consecrated life" op. 18 as an "Ouverture" to the 2. Symphony of Gustav Mahler. In 2009 Hensel's arrangements of the 45th Symphony by Joseph Haydn and the 8th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven were played by the Young Euro Classic-China-Festivalorchestra and conducted by Muhai Tang in various Chinese cities like Shanghai and Tianjin.< His string sextet "Klaerchen´s Song" op.20 had its W.P. by the Ensemble Modern under Jonathan Stockhammer and was played again by the Austrian ensemble lux in the Arnold Schönberg Center Vienna in December 2010.

In 2011 he started to work with the German author and filmmaker Edgar Reitz and one year later he started to compose electro-acoustic music besides his acoustic works.

In the same year, his dissertation concerning the music of Gerhard Schedl was published and in 2012 he edited Emanuel Aloys Förster´s basso continuo school including Karl Weigl´s biography on Förster.

Hensel is a member of the German composers association, Austrian Composers Association, ISCM-Austria and the GEMA.

Since 2013 Hensel is also performing visual arts combined with his electronic pieces.^{[citation needed]}