Richard Davis, Composer
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About
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.
Upcoming Events
Elissa Premiere
I will be performing in the premiere of my Master's thesis piece, Elissa, a monodrama for string quartet and soprano based on Vergil's Aeneid.
Elissa retells the Dido and Aeneas story from Vergil's Aeneid in a musical "stream of consciousness." The audience experiences events as Dido does, following the unique twists and turns of her conscious and subconscious mind. The conscious internal monologue is presented by the soprano, who sings text adapted from fragments of the original Latin Aeneid. And on the other hand, the quartet presents music whose sensations mimic those of Dido's subconscious, emotional progression. The work follows Dido as she meets Aeneas, falls in love with him, is betrayed by him, and comes to despise him. Elissa presents one particular view into the archetypal story of a relationship coming together and falling apart.
DCS Concert
I will be premiering a work for solo viola and live electronics by Harrison Brooks at the upcoming Digital Composition Studio Class Concert.
Links
Listening
If you like what I do and want to consider supporting me, please consider purchasing tracks from my Bandcamp or scores from my Payhip. If you want to learn more about what I do, all of my music is hosted somewhere between my YouTube Channel and my SoundCloud; the YouTube channel focuses on live performances and has some score videos where possible, and the SoundCloud has more studio recordings.
Miscellaneous
Some might be interested in my GitLab, which has a number of Python scripts I've written in the past for various computer-assisted composition tasks. I also have a GitHub (where the source code for this site is hosted!), but this is secondary and primarily for collaboration with others.
Contact
To contact me about scores, commissions, collaborations, lessons, or whatever you like, please send me an email at davisrichard437@gmail.com!