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, violist, and singer, whose primary musical interests are vocal music and opera, intertextuality, live electronics, computer-assisted composition, and contemporary music performance. Richard is from Westford, Massachusetts in the US and currently resides in Montreal.
Richard is currently pursuing a M.Mus. in composition at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he is studying music composition under Professor Jean Lesage. His research combines concepts and techniques from the Baroque, Classical, and modern eras in pursuit of a stream-of-consciousness approach to an opera based on Vergil's Aeneid.
Other recent vocal works include "The Widow," a miniature opera about Cape Breton labor history; "Till This Moment," a dramatic work for voice and live electronics that explores the pivotal scenes of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; and fātō profugī, another opera based on the Aeneid.
Richard is a strong proponent of performing the music of living composers. He performs his own work, such as ōdī et amō, a cycle of seven miniatures for solo violist, who sings during the seventh. He is also a founding member of the Off Topic Ensemble, a volunteer group of seven McGill composer-performers for the purpose of furnishing young student composers with performance and mentorship opportunities. The ensemble has ongoing collaborations with six student composers.
Richard holds a B.Mus. in composition from Schulich, where he studied composition with Prof. Sean Ferguson and viola performance with Prof. André Roy, and pursued additional coursework in computer science.
