Tansy Davies

In recent years Tansy Davies (b. Bristol, 1973) has established herself at the vanguard of the new wave of young British composers. Her music is informed by the worlds of both the classical avant-garde and experimental rock (as one critic wrote “between Prince and Xenakis”), and her scores are littered with unusual yet insightful directions, such as “urban, muscular”, “seedy, low slung”, “stealthy” and “solid, grinding”. She is also greatly influenced by both the natural world and, recently, by the controversial architecture of the Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid.

Following initial studies at Colchester Institute (French horn and composition), she later freelanced professionally in orchestras and rock bands whilst studying composition with Simon Bainbridge at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and then, later, for her PhD with Simon Holt at Royal Holloway College, London (where she is now Composer in Residence).

Davies has already enjoyed a number of commissions from such organisations as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Aldeburgh Festival, the London Sinfonietta, the BBC (for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), the Composers Ensemble, the Brunel Ensemble and from oboist Nicholas Daniel.

In June 2006, the BBC SO and Zsolt Nagy performed (and recorded for broadcast) the orchestral work Tilting, and in February 2007 the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Thomas Adès gave the premiere of, Falling Angel, a 20-minute commission for large ensemble in Birmingham and at the Présences festival in Paris.

Other recent works include Streamlines (CBSO Youth Orchestra/Paul Daniel); Contraband (Britten Sinfonia); kingpin (City of London Sinfonia) and Elephant and Castle (a large-scale multi-media work for the 2007 Aldeburgh Festival, co-written with Warp Records DJ Mira Calix, and directed by Tim Hopkins).

Forthcoming commissions include works for the Norwegian ensemble BIT 20.

July 2007