Nico Muhly

Nico Asher Muhly (; born August 26, 1981) is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles and has had two operas commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Since 2006, he has released nine studio albums, many of which are collaborative, including 2017's ''Planetarium'' with Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner & James McAlister. He is a member of the Icelandic music collective and record label Bedroom Community.

Biography

Early years and personal life

Muhly was born in Vermont to Bunny Harvey, a painter and teacher at Wellesley College, and Frank Muhly, a documentary filmmaker.Richards, Charlie
"Boy Wonder"
'' The Advocate'', 12 August 2008, Retrieved on 20 November 2017 Muhly was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and sang in the choir at Grace Episcopal Church in Providence. He began studying piano at age 10.

Muhly went on to study at the Wheeler School in Providence. As part of a dual-degree program, he attended Columbia University and the Juilliard School. He graduated from the former in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and received a Master's degree in music in 2004 from Juilliard, where he studied composition with John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse.

In 2014, he told the ''New York Times'' that he lives in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City with his boyfriend of several years, Ben Wyskida, a political consultant. He wrote about his mental-health problems in 2015.

Career

As a first-year master's student at Juilliard at age 22, Muhly began working for Philip Glass as an archivist, and later an editor, conductor, and keyboardist, for eight years.

Muhly worked in collaboration with Björk on the DVD single "Oceania" in 2004;

in 2005, he was commissioned by Colorado Academy, a private school in Colorado, to write a song for the opening of their Fine Arts building.

In 2006, he released his first album of works, titled ''Speaks Volumes'', and in 2008, his second album, titled ''Mothertongue''.

In a 2007 interview with Molly Sheridan on '' NewMusicBox'', Muhly explained that while he considers himself a classical music composer, that does not preclude his working in a variety of musical genres: "It's essentially like being from somewhere. I feel like I'm very proudly from the classical tradition. It's like being from Nebraska. Like you are from there if you're from there. It doesn't mean that you can't have a productive life somewhere else. The notion of your genre being something that you have to actively perform, I think is pretty vile."

In 2009, Muhly did choral and string quartet arrangements for four of the songs on Brooklyn-based indie rock band Grizzly Bear's third album, '' Veckatimest'', and he worked with Antony and the Johnsons on the albums '' The Crying Light'' and '' Swanlights''.

In 2009 Muhly was co-commissioned with Valgeir Sigurdsson b
Works and Process at the Guggenheim
to compose the music for ''Green Aria, A ScentOpera'', created and directed by Stewart Matthew, that featured scents as dramatis personnae that were streamed from "scent microphones."

Muhly worked on two commissions for the UK-based Britten Sinfonia, performed in January and February 2010. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival commissioned "Drones & Piano" for pianist Bruce Brubaker, which premiered in May 2010.

Muhly's opera '' Two Boys'', a collaboration with librettist Craig Lucas and directed by Bartlett Sher, premiered in June 2011 at the English National Opera and made its Metropolitan Opera debut on October 21, 2013. According to a 2008 ''New York Times'' article, the opera is based on a late-1990s British case involving a 14-year-old boy taking on the online identity of women to try to get someone to kill him, without success. However, in a 2008 interview with '' The Advocate'', Muhly stated that the opera is based on the true story of an online friendship between two male teenagers, one of whom stabs the other. The opera was reworked both before and after its 2011 premiere. The first recording of the piece, from the Met production, was released on Nonesuch Records in 2014.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Commissioning Club, Cantus, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Alfred P. and Ann M. Moore commissioned ''Luminous Body'', also a collaboration with librettist Craig Lucas. The piece premiered on September 9, 2011.

In 2013, he toured with Glen Hansard. They performed together with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Eindhoven.

His 2008 musical collaboration, ''Confessions'', with Faroese singer-songwriter Teitur was released in 2016 by Nonesuch Records.

Muhly contributed to the 2018 re-recording of David Bowie's 1987 album '' Never Let Me Down''.

In 2020 Muhly completed a
virtual premiere
for the San Francisco Symphony during the COVID-19 pandemic, titled ''Throughline''. The 19-minute piece features eight collaborative artists selected by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. Muhly also composed and recorded ''Trombone Phrases'' for Sound World’s Coronavirus Fund for Freelance Musicians, a project supporting struggling musicians during the UK’s Covid 19 lockdown. It was released by Sound World as part of the album ''Reflections'' (credited to Sound World and the Bristol Ensemble) alongside specially written pieces by other composers such as Gavin Bryars, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Evelyn Glennie and Sally Beamish.

His composition for full choir and 12 guitars
How Little You Are
' for Conspirare Company of Voices, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Dublin Guitar Quartet and Texas Guitar Quartet commissioned by Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin was released on Conspiriare's 2020 album ''The Singing Guitar''.

In 2021 his composition ''Shrink'' appeared on Violinist Pekka Kuusisto's album ''First Light'' released by Pentatone.

Compositions and projects

Choral
*2003 ''Set Me as a Seal''
*2004 ''First Service''
*2004 ''Like as the Hart''
*2005 ''A Good Understanding''
*2005 '' Bright Mass with Canons''
*2005 ''Expecting the Main Things from You''
*2005 ''I Cannot Attain Unto It''
*2006 ''The Sweets of Evening''
*2007 ''Syllables''
*2008 ''Pater Noster''
*2008 ''Senex Puerum Portabat''
*2009 ''I Drink the Air Before Me''
*2011 ''Luminous Body''
*2011 ''Grief Is the Price We Pay for Love''
*2013 ''An Outrage'' (BBC commission)
*2014 '' Sentences''

Film
*2006 ''Choking Man''
*2006 ''Cricket Head''
*2007 ''Joshua''
*2006 '' Wonder Showzen'', "Clarence Special Report"
*2008 ''The Reader''
*2009 ''Felicitas''
*2011 ''Margaret''
*2013 '' Kill Your Darlings''
*2017 '' How to Talk to Girls at Parties''
*2017 ''Far From the Tree''
*2018 ''The Seagull''
*2020 '' Worth''
*2020 ''Gift of Fire''
*2021 '' The Humans''

Television
*2017 '' Howards End''
*2022 '' Pachinko''

Opera
*2010 '' Dark Sisters''
*2011 '' Two Boys''
*2017 '' Marnie''

Incidental
*2005 '' Iphigenia at Aulis''
*2007 ''The Magnificent Cuckold''
*2008 ''Prayer for My Enemy''

Orchestra
*2001–2002 ''Fits & Bursts''
*2003 ''Out of the Loop''
*2004 ''By All Means''
*2004 ''So to Speak''
*2006 '' It Remains to Be Seen''
*2006 ''Wish You Were Here''
*2007 ''From Here on Out''
*2008 ''Step Team''
*2009 ''The Only Tune''
*2009 ''Drones on O Lord, Whose Mercies Numberless''
*2009 ''Impossible Things''
*2010 ''Detailed Instructions''
*2011 ''Edge of the World''
*2012 ''So Far So Good''
*2012 ''Gait'' (BBC commission)
*2013 ''Bright Mass with Cannons''
*2015 '' Mixed Messages''
*2020 ''Throughline'' ( San Francisco Symphony Orchestra commission)

Orchestra & Soloist
*2005 ''Keep in Touch'', for viola and orchestra (or tape)
*2007 ''Seeing is Believing'', for six-string electric violin and chamber orchestra
*2012 Cello Concerto
*2012 ''Double Standard'', for two percussionists and orchestra
*2014 Viola Concerto
*2014 ''Seeing is Believing'', for six-string electric violin and orchestra
*2017 ''Register'', Concerto for Organ and Orchestra
*2018 ''Reliable Sources'', for bassoon and orchestra
*2019 ''Cello Cycles''
*2020 ''In Certain Cycles'', Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
*2021 ''Shrink'', Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra

Piano
*2003 ''Three Études for Piano''
*2005 ''A Hudson Cycle''
*2005 ''Pillaging Music''
*2007 ''Skip Town''
*2010 ''Drones & Piano''
*2012 ''You Can't Get There From Here''

Percussion
*2002 ''Beaming Music''
*2003 ''Time After Time''
*2005 ''Ta & Clap''
*2006 ''It's About Time''
*2008 ''I Shudder to Think''

Small ensemble
*2002 ''Beaming Music''
*2003 ''Clear Music''
*2003 ''Flexible Music''
*2003 ''Duet No 1: Chorale Pointing Downwards''
*2003 ''Reading into it''
*2004 ''By All Means''
*2004 ''You Could Have Asked Me''
*2004 ''Ta and Clap''
*2005 ''The Elements of Style''
*2005 ''Stride''
*2005 ''Pillaging Music''
*2006 ''How About Now''
*2006 ''Fast Music with Folk Songs''
*2007 ''I Know Where Everything Is''
*2007 ''Principles of Uncertainty''
*2008 ''Triade''
*2008 ''Mothertongue''
*2008 ''Wonders''
*2008 ''The Only Tune''
*2008 ''Common Ground''
*2009 ''I Drink the Air Before Me''
*2009 ''Motion''
*2009 ''Farewell Photography''
*2010 ''Diacritical Marks''
*2010 ''Drones & Piano''
*2011 ''Drones & Viola''
*2012 ''Drones & Violin''
*2012 ''Doublespeak''
*2014 ''Fast Dances''
*2015 ''Look For Me''
*2017 ''Planetarium''

Solo
*2002 ''Radiant Music''
*2003 ''Honest Music''
*2003 ''A Long Line''
*2005 ''Keep in Touch''
*2005 ''Pillaging Music''
*2005 ''It Goes without Saying''

Voice
*2003 ''Employment''
*2005 ''The Elements of Style''
*2007 ''Mothertongue''
*2007 ''Wonders''
*2007 ''The Only Tune''
*2008 ''The Adulteress''
*2009 ''Drones on "O Lord, Whose Mercies Numberless"''
*2009 ''Vocalise on "Al lampo dell' armi"''
*2009 ''Impossible Things''
*2010 ''Let the Night Perish (Job's Curse)''
*2011 ''The Map of the World''
*2011 ''Four Traditional Songs''
*2012 ''Two Hearts'', for voice, violin and orchestra
*2012 ''Far Away Songs''
*2012 ''Hymns For Private Use''
*2012 ''Three Songs''
*2013 ''The Brown Girl''
*2013 ''Reynardine''
*2013 ''So Many Things''
*2014 ''Pleasure Ground''
*2014 ''Sentences''
*2016 ''Two Songs''
*2018 ''Land in an Isle''
*2019 ''Death in Venice''
*2019 ''My Pretty Saro''
*2019 ''The Only Tune''
*2019 ''Unexpected News''

Arrangements and orchestrations

*2006 ''The Letting Go'' by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
*2007 ''Miserere Mei'' (orchestration of William Byrd's ''Miserere Mei'')
*2007 ''Deus and Bow Thine Ear'' (orchestration of William Byrd's ''Deus and Bow Thine Ear'')
*2008 '' All Is Well'' by Sam Amidon
*2008 "Með þér" and "Á meðan vatnið velgist" on ''Bestu kveðjur'' by Sprengjuhöllin
*2009 ''Confessions'', a multimedia collaboration with Teitur Lassen.
*2009 Various songs on Antony and the Johnsons' album '' The Crying Light''
*2009 Various songs on Grizzly Bear's album '' Veckatimest''
*2009 ''Tricks of the Trade'' on Mew's album '' No More Stories...''
*2009 ''Year of the Dragon'' on ''Run Rabbit Run''
*2009 "So Far Around The Bend" by The National on '' Dark Was the Night''
*2010 Various songs on Antony and the Johnsons' album '' Swanlights''
*2010 '' Go'' by Jónsi
*2010 "I See the Sign" by Sam Amidon
*2012 "Climax" on ''Looking 4 Myself'' by Usher
*2010 String arrangements on Antony and the Johnsons' album '' Cut the World''
*2013 ''For Now I Am Winter'' by Ólafur Arnalds
*2015 "Anecdotes" on Joanna Newsom's album '' Divers''
*2017 "Fortunate Son", collaboration with Villagers
*2021 "If I'm Insecure" on James Blake's album ''Friends That Break Your Heart''

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

As primary artist

As composer

Opera, chorale, and chamber works
*''FM'' by Flexible Music (2009) (track: "Flexible Music")
*''A Good Understanding'' by Los Angeles Master Chorale (Decca/Universal Classics, 2010)
*''From Here On Out'' by Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (2011) (tracks: ''From Here On Out'' and "Wish You Were Here")
*''Seeing is Believing'' by the Aurora Orchestra ( Decca/Universal Classics, 2011)
*''Cycles'' by James McVinnie (Bedroom Community, 2013)
*'' Two Boys'' from the Metropolitan Opera production ( Nonesuch Records, 2014)
*''Filament'' by Eighth Blackbird (2015) (tracks: "Doublespeak" and "Two Pages")
*''Dawn to Dust'' by Utah Symphony (2016) (track: ''Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra)'')
*''Variations'' by Mishka Rushdie Momen (Somm Recordings, 2019) (track: ''Small Variations'')
*''Three Continents Cello Concerto'' by Jan Vogler ( Sony Classical, 2020) (with Sven Helbig & Zhou Long)

Film scores
*''Joshua (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)'' (Moviescore Media, 2008)
*''The Reader (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)'' (Lakeshore Records, 2009)
*'' Kill Your Darlings (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)'' (2013)
*'' Howard's End (Original Soundtrack Album)'' (miniseries, 2018)
*'' Pachinko Season 1 (Original Soundtrack Album)'' (Apple TV+ Original Series, 2022)

As arranger

* ''Seeing is Believing'' by Thomas Gould & Aurora Orchestra (Decca, 2011)

References

Sources

*
*

Profile and list of published scores
Music Sales Classical

External links

*
*
*
*

"Nico Muhly on How a Hitchcock Thriller Inspired His New Opera"
by Elizabeth Svokos, allarts.wliw.org, October 17, 2018

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhly, Nico
Living people
1981 births
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Juilliard School alumni
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Musicians from New York City
21st-century classical composers
LGBT classical composers
American LGBT musicians
Musicians from Vermont
Decca Records artists
Nonesuch Records artists
LGBT classical musicians
21st-century American composers
Classical musicians from New York (state)
21st-century American male musicians