Featured Composer: Ed Frazier Davis
Ed Frazier Davis (b. 1989) is an English-American composer and baritone currently living and working in Chicago.
Lauded for its "compelling, […] colourful orchestration" (Musical Toronto), Ed's music is polystylistic and draws from many eclectic influences, from Medieval song to postminimalism and practically everything in between. He has composed music for a wide variety of media, but as an experienced singer he has a particularly strong affinity for writing choral music. His music has been commissioned and performed throughout North America and Europe by many renowned performers and organizations, including Access Contemporary Music, Bella Voce, The Crossing, soprano Erin Wall, La Caccina, the Lincoln Trio, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Ultimately, he seeks to write music that breaks established artistic binaries—e.g. traditional vs. modern, accessible vs. unfamiliar—to create art that is fulfilling to as wide an audience as possible.
Ed's career has developed considerable momentum in the past few years. In 2014, he was named second place winner of the American Prize in Choral Composition (Student Division), as well as a finalist in Chanticleer's annual student composer competition. In 2015, he received the premiere of his first international commission from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Children's Chorus (conducted by Sir Andrew Davis), and was selected as one of four composition fellows at the very first Big Sky Choral Initiative. In 2016, he will make his Southern Hemisphere debut with a commissioned work from Melbourne-based chamber ensemble PLEXUS.
Ed earned his Bachelor of Arts with Honors in composition from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and his Master of Music degree in composition from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He has studied composition with Bruce Polay, Thomas Benjamin, Marta Ptaszyńska, Kyong Mee Choi, Stacy Garrop, and Gabriel Jackson, and voice with Sarah Moran, Stacey Tappan, Jim Collins, and Gianna Rolandi. He currently serves proudly as Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Chamber Choir, and is a founding composer (along with Wayland Rogers and Lee Kesselman) of that group's Composer Consortium. He will begin his doctoral studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fall of 2016.