Tansy Davies facts for kids

Tansy Davies was born on May 29, 1973, in Bristol, England. She is a talented English composer who writes modern classical music. Tansy Davies creates music for large groups of musicians, like the famous London Symphony Orchestra. In 1996, she won the BBC Young Composers' Competition. Later, in 2023, she received a special Ivor Novello Award for her amazing collection of musical works. This award recognized her great achievements in composing. In 2019, she was even named one of the most influential people in the UK by the Evening Standard newspaper.

Early Musical Journey

Tansy Davies began her musical life by singing and playing guitar in a rock band. As a teenager, she became very interested in writing her own music. She went on to study music composition and the French horn at the Colchester Institute. She continued her studies with well-known composers like Simon Bainbridge and Simon Holt.

Tansy Davies has also been a "Composer-in-Residence" at Royal Holloway, University of London. This means she was a special composer who worked there and shared her knowledge. She earned a PhD from the university. Today, she teaches music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, helping new musicians learn and grow.

Composing for Others

Tansy Davies has been asked to write music for many different groups and events. These requests are called "commissions." She won an award in the 1996 BBC Young Composers' Competition, which helped her get noticed.

Here are some of the pieces she was asked to create:

• Iris (2004) for the Cheltenham Festival
• Residuum (2004) for the Orchestra of the Swan
• Tilting (2005) for the London Symphony Orchestra
• Spine (2005) for the Aldeburgh Festival
• As With Voices And With Tears (2010) for The Portsmouth Grammar School
• Christmas hath a darkness (2011) for A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College Cambridge
• "Between Worlds" (2015) for The Barbican Centre and The English National Opera

In 2007, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group performed her piece Falling Angel. It was a 20-minute work for a large group of musicians. Her first piece for The Proms, a famous music festival, was Wild Card for orchestra. It was first performed in September 2010.

Tansy Davies's Musical Style

Tansy Davies's music is a mix of many different styles. She combines ideas from modern classical music, funk, experimental rock, disco, and jazz. Her musical scores sometimes include unusual instructions for the musicians. These might be words like 'urban, muscular' or 'stealthy'.

She also gets ideas from other things, like the buildings designed by architect Zaha Hadid. For example, her trumpet concerto called Spiral House was inspired by Hadid's architecture. Tansy Davies has also worked with video artist Zara Matthews, combining music with visual art.

One newspaper, The Independent, described her music as having "compulsive rhythms" and "outlandish counterpoint." This means her music often has strong, catchy beats and interesting ways that different musical lines play together. It also mentioned her love for funk, jazz, and a "deep, unsettling sense of darkness" in her music.

Tansy Davies once explained her 2006 work Falling Angel. She said that her music is often built up in layers, similar to funk music. However, while funk is usually very tight and precise, she likes to make her music "baggy." She wants to keep listeners guessing about the main beat of the music.

Music Recordings

Tansy Davies's music has been featured on several CDs. These recordings help people around the world listen to her unique compositions. She has released three special CDs that focus only on her music:

• Troubairitz (2011)
• Spine (2012)
• Nature (2021)

Her other musical pieces can also be found on various collections, especially on the NMC record label.

Major Compositions

Tansy Davies has written several important musical works, including operas. An opera is a play where the story is told mostly through singing.

Her first opera, Between Worlds, is about the major events that happened in the USA in 2001. Tansy Davies explained that the idea for this opera grew over time. She worked with poet Nick Drake and director Deborah Warner. They wanted to create something deeply human that could turn darkness into light. The story is told from different viewpoints: people inside a building, people on the ground in New York City, and even from a faraway, cosmic place. The music helps to express strong feelings and energy that words alone cannot.

In 2018, she created another opera called Cave. Nick Drake also wrote the story for this one. Cave was performed in an old industrial warehouse by The Royal Opera. It uses electronic sounds along with a small group of musicians and only two singers.

Here are some of her other compositions:

• The Void in This Colour (2001) – for a small group of 13 musicians
• Inside Out ii (2003)
• Genome (2003)
• neon (2004) – for a small group of 7 musicians
• Iris (2004) – for soprano saxophone and a small group of 15 musicians
• grind show (electric) (2007) – for a small group of 5 musicians with electronics
• Hinterland (2008) – for a small group of musicians
• Leaf Springs (2008)
• grind show (unplugged) (2008)
• Destroying Beauty (2008) – for voice and piano
• This Love (2009) – for tenor voice and piano
• Static (2009) – for tenor voice and piano
• Troubairitz (2010) – for soprano voice and percussion
• Wild Card (2010) – for orchestra
• Greenhouses (2011) – for female voice, alto flute, percussion, and double bass
• Christmas Eve (2011) – for mixed voices
• Aquatic (2011) – a duet for cor anglais and percussion
• Nature (2012) – a concerto for piano and 10 musicians
• Delphic Bee (2012) – for a group of 9 wind instruments
• Re-greening (2015) – for a large singing orchestra