Richard Davis, Composer
About
Introduction
Salutations! My name is Richard Davis. I am a Montreal- and Massachusetts-based composer, viola performer, and teacher. My primary compositional interests are intertextuality, live electronics, vocal or vocal-emulating music, and computer-assisted composition. With viola, I specialize in contemporary music performance.
Bio
Richard Davis is a composer, whose primary interests are intertextuality, live electronics, vocal or vocal-emulating music, and computer-assisted composition, and a violist, whose main focus is contemporary music performance. Richard is from Westford, Massachusetts in the US and currently resides in Montreal.
Recently, Richard completed his work as the first student composer in residence with the McGill vocal studio, culminating in the 2022 world premiere of his operatic work fātō profugī, which presents an intertextual commentary on the original Dido and Aeneas story from Vergil’s Aeneid.
Following the conclusion of this project, Richard also completed a collaboration with violist Marilou Lepage on his piece "Variations on an Excerpt," for solo viola and live electronics.
And most recently, Richard collaborated with vocalist Dani Claxton to produce "Till This Moment," a dramatic work for vocalist and live electronics that explores pivotal scenes of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Richard Davis holds a B.Mus. in composition from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he studied music composition with Professor Sean Ferguson and viola performance with Professor André Roy. As part of the same program he also attained a B.A. Minor Concentration in computer science. He is currently an M.Mus. candidate at Schulich, where he is studying music composition under Professor Jean Lesage.