Daniël Brüggen was born in Haarlem where he started playing the recorder at an early age. He studied recorder at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Kees Boeke and graduated as a soloist there in 1983. During his conservatory studies he founded the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust recorder quartet with three fellow students. This proved to be an extraordinary combination of spirits and three years later, after winning the Bruges Early Music Competition in 1981, they conquered the world of early music and beyond with their unusual repertoire and ensemble perfection. With this ensemble he has traveled all over the world and has made various recordings for Decca, Channel Classics and NM Classics, two of which won the prestigious Edison Award. 

Since 2004 he has been teaching in the Department of Early Music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and is an Honorary Associate at the Royal Academy of Music in London. 

Since 2001 he has also worked as a documentary filmmaker and has produced several clips of classical music and recital recordings. 

His documentaries include ‘Ricercata’ (2011), a personal search for the soul of the recorder, ‘FortePiano Collections in England’ (2014), ‘Master Makers’ (2017), ‘The Color of Air’ (2018) and ‘Sound and Soul’ (2019). For television he produced several episodes about the restoration of medieval cellars in Utrecht in 2022 and 2023.
He is currently involved making a documentary on the late recorder maker Adriana Breukink.