Short press bio Composer and percussionist Nathan Davis (NYC) makes music inspired by natural processes, acoustic phenomena, and the abstraction of simple stories. He has received commissions from the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Ojai Festival (for a collaboration with sound-sculptor Trimpin and Eighth Blackbird), the Calder String Quartet / MATA / Carlsbad Festival, Ethos Percussion Group, M/P Duo, and the Moving Theater Dance Company, and received awards from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, American Music Center, Meet the Composer, Argosy Foundation, ASCAP, and the ISCM. His music has been performed in the U.S., Canada, Cuba, Europe, Finland, and China, in NYC's Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, Roulette, The Stone, and many others. Several of his electroacoustic percussion pieces are available on a solo cd, Memory Spaces, and his acoustic music is published by Frog Peak. He has recorded for Tzadik, New Albion, Mode, Bridge, and Cold Blue records. Narrative I am a percussionist and composer based in NYC. My music-making is inspired by many sources, beginning with a simple fascination for acoustic phenomena and embracing American experimentalism, Balinese Gamelan, and Karnatic music. With the phenomenal cellist Ha-Yang Kim I co-founded Odd Appetite, an electroacoustic duo performing our own works and select commissions across North America, Europe, and Asia. While in Boston I began playing new and traditional Balinese music with Gamelan Galak-Tika, making my solo debut at Carnegie Hall with the gamelan and Odd Appetite and having the incredible experience of touring Bali the following summer. More recently I have become a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, a fantastic new music group based in NYC and Chicago. Through these activities and other projects I have also been fortunate to work, play, and record with many wonderful musicians and composers including Evan Ziporyn, Christian Wolff, Larry Polansky, Lee Hyla, and others. In playing and composing I am drawn to make music that revels in sound and that has a narrative and visceral trajectory. Many of my pieces use computer processing to magnify the subtle complexities of sounds and to reveal the inherent characters of ordinary objects and instruments. Three of these works are on my solo cd, Memory Spaces. The disc has a gorgeous cover drawn by my father, an architect and a profound influence on how I see and hear nature. A monograph disc of the music I've written for ICE is in progress. I have received commissions from the International Contemporary Ensemble and its members, The Calder Quartet (commissioned by MATA and the Carlsbad Festival), Ethos Percussion Group, the Ojai Festival (for a collaboration with kinetic sculptor and MacArthur Award recipient Trimpin), the Meehan/Perkins Duo, the Moving Theater Dance Company, the Jerome Foundation, Concert Artists Guild, the American Music Center, and received awards from ASCAP, the Look and Listen Festival, American Composers Forum, the Argosy Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the ISCM. As a teacher I also seek to combine the technical and creative aspects of being a musician, encouraging my students to both write and play music. While on the faculty of Dartmouth and Franklin Pierce Colleges I led ensembles in which students performed their own pieces. I have also worked with young composers as an artist in residence at Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Brandeis, CalArts, Baylor, Longy, UMass, and at the Walden School, an inspiring summer program in New Hampshire for composers age 12-18. I earned Bachelors degrees in both composition and percussion at Rice University, was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Rotterdams Conservatorium in Holland, and subsequently received a Masters in Music from Yale University. I also studied Karnatic rhythm and microtonality at the Amsterdams Conservatorium. This narrative is not intended to be used as a press bio - for a press or program information, please email me. Photo by Olivia Merchant |
