Tansy Davies (born 29 May 1973,

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. She won the BBC Young Composers' Competition in 1996 and has written works for ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Early life

Tansy Davies started out singing and playing guitar in a rock band. She developed an interest in composition in her teens and studied composition and French horn at the

Colchester Institute Colchester Institute is a large provider of further and higher education based in the city of Colchester. Colchester Institute provides full-time and part-time courses for a wide variety of learners including 16 to 19 year olds, apprentices, adu ...

followed by further study with

Simon Bainbridge Simon Bainbridge (30 August 1952 – 2 April 2021) was a British composer. He was also a professor and head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and visiting professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in the United ...

at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

and with Simon Holt. Tansy Davies has been Composer-in-Residence at Royal Holloway, University of London (where she gained a PhD) and currently teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She also worked for three years as a freelance horn player and was a member of the Moon Velvet Collective.

Commissions

Davies was a prize winner in the 1996 BBC Young Composers' Competition. She has received a number of commissions from a number of organisations, for such works as the following: * ''Iris'' (2004), commission from the

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Ra ...

* ''Residuum'' (2004), commission from the Orchestra of the Swan * ''Spiral House'' (2004), commission from the

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional r ...

* ''Tilting'' (2005), commission from the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orc ...

* ''Spine'' (2005), commission from the

Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festival Th ...

* ''As With Voices And With Tears'' (2010), commission for

The Portsmouth Grammar School The Portsmouth Grammar School is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent Day school, day school in Portsmouth, England, located in the historic part of Portsmouth. It was founded in 1732 as a boys' school and is locat ...

* ''Christmas hath a darkness'' (2011), commission for

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols Nine Lessons and Carols, also known as the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, is a service of Christian worship traditionally celebrated on or near Christmas Eve. The story of the fall of humanity, the ...

, King's College Cambridge 2011. * "Between Worlds" (2015), a commission from

The Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhib ...

, for The English National Opera. Other works include ''Streamlines'' ( CBSO Youth Orchestra/

Paul Daniel Paul Daniel (born 5 July 1958) is an English conductor. Biography Early life Daniel was born in Birmingham. As a boy, he sang in the choir of Coventry Cathedral, where he received musical training; then studied music at King's College, Cambr ...

); ''Contraband'' (Britten Sinfonia); ''kingpin'' (City of London Sinfonia), ''Adorned'' (Haugesund CO – Norway), ''Hinterland'' (

), ''Rift'' (BBC Concert Orchestra) and ''Elephant and Castle'' (a large-scale multi-media work for the 2007

, co-written with

Warp Records Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, ...

Mira Calix Chantal Francesca Passamonte (28 October 1969 – 25 March 2022), known professionally as Mira Calix ( ), was a South African-born, British-based audio and visual artist and musician signed to Warp Records. Although her earlier music is almost ...

, and directed by Tim Hopkins). In February 2007, the

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) is a British chamber ensemble based in Birmingham, England specialising in the performance of new and contemporary music. BCMG performs regularly at the CBSO Centre and Symphony Hall in Birmingham, tour ...

and

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: '' The Tempest'' (2004), '' ...

gave the premiere of ''Falling Angel'', a 20-minute commission for large ensemble in Birmingham, and at the Présences festival in Paris. Her first commission for

The Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

, ''Wild Card'' for orchestra, received its world premiere in September 2010.

Musical style

Davies' music is informed by the worlds of the classical avant-garde, funk and experimental rock. As well, her scores contain unusual directions, such as 'urban, muscular', 'seedy, low slung', 'stealthy' and 'solid, grinding'. Other influences on her compositions have included the architecture of

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ar, زها حديد ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centu ...

, in her trumpet concerto ''Spiral House''. She has also collaborated with the video artist Zara Matthews.

Recordings

Davies has been the subject of three portrait CDs, ''Troubairitz'' ( Nonclassical Recordings, 2011), ''Spine'' (

NMC Recordings NMC Recordings is a British recording label and a charity which specialises in recording works by living composers from the British Isles. History The composer Colin Matthews founded NMC in 1989, with financial assistance from the Holst Found ...

, 2012), and ''Nature'' (NMC, 2021). Other compositions appear in various anthologies, notably on the NMC label.

Compositions

References

External links

Official Tansy Davies website

Faber Music page on Tansy Davies

Tansy Davies on the British Music Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Tansy 1973 births Living people Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers English classical composers Musicians from Bristol Women classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century English women musicians 21st-century British composers 21st-century English women musicians 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers