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Biography
Finding narrative in natural processes and acoustic phenomena, Nathan Davis "writes music that deals
deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority" (NYTimes), elucidating essential characters of instruments
and the fragile athleticism of playing them. Acoustic space and electronics are engaged to reveal and
exaggerate subtle complexities of sound, forming an architectural sound-world through which the
audience travels in experiencing a piece.
The BAM Next Wave Festival and American Opera Projects presented the world premiere of Hagoromo,
a chamber dance-opera featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble, soloists Katalin Karolyi and
Peter Tantsits, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and featuring dancers Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto, also
featured at the Guggenheim Museum's “Works and Process”. The Donaueschinger Musiktage
commissioned Davis's Echeia for string quartet and live electronics, and Tanglewood presented the
premiere of The Sand Reckoner (a “macrocosmic masterpiece” - Boston Globe) for six solo voices and
celeste. Lincoln Center inaugurated its Tully Scope Festival with the premiere of Nathan's work Bells, a
site-specific, electroacoustic piece for ensemble and live broadcast to mobile phones.
Davis has received commissions from Ensemble CBarré (France), Christ Church Preservation Trust
(Philadelphia), Jacob Greenberg and Ekmeles vocal ensemble, the Calder Quartet, Claire Chase, Steven
Schick, Miller Theatre, The La Jolla Symphony Chorus, Third Coast Percussion, MATA, and Yarn/
Wire. International performances of his music have been heard at Acht Brücken Köln, Aspekte Salzburg,
Helsinki Musica Nova, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Audio Art Krakow, and other festivals in
Holland, China, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Australia. In the USA, his music been presented at Carnegie
Hall, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, The
Kitchen, Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, The Stone, Issue Project Room, the Park Avenue Armory, and in
portrait concerts at Spoleto Festival USA and the MCA Chicago.
Nathan was a Fellow at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, was the 2018 Aaron Copland Fellow
at the Bogliasco Foundation, and focused a residency on electronics and spatialization at the GMEM in
Marseille. He has also received awards from the Fromm Foundation, Meet The Composer, Aaron Copland
Fund, Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and New Music USA. He and Phyllis Chen won an NY Innovative
Theater Award for their score to Sylvia Milo's play “The Other Mozart”. Albums of Davis' music appear
on New Focus, Bridge, Tundra, and Starkland, and have also been broadcast live on SWR2 in Germany
and featured on PBS Live from Lincoln Center, NPR's All Things Considered, and WNYC's New Sounds.
Also an active percussionist, Davis has premiered hundreds of pieces, working with luminaries and
fostering emerging composers. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Tokyo
Symphony, and Nagoya Philharmonic.
Davis teaches composition and electronic music at The New School College of Performing Arts. Prior to
that he taught at Montclair State University, and at Dartmouth College for eight years. He has given
masterclasses on composition, electronics, and extended percussion techniques at Manhattan School of
Music, UC Berkeley, CalArts, Rice, Baylor, Yale, and the Akademia Muzyczna in Krakow, Poland, with
additional residencies at Harvard, Princeton, UCSD, Brown, and other universities across North America.
Nathan received his Masters in Music from Yale University, Bachelors degrees in both composition and
percussion at Rice University, and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Rotterdams
Conservatorium in Holland.
OPERA America/Opera.ca Grants Awarded
Click here to learn more about OPERA America granting programs.
| GRANT NAME | YEAR | The Opera Fund: Repertoire Development | 2004 |
There are no productions for this artist in the Season Schedule of Performances which currently only dates back to 1991.
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Artist Information
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