Tansy Davies

Tansy Davies (born 29 May 1973) 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. In 2023 she was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Works Collections at The Ivors Classical Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements in composition. In 2019, she was listed as one of the UK’s most influential people by the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000, alongside Simon Rattle and Dave.

Early life Davies was born in Bristol and began 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, followed by further study with Simon Bainbridge at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with Simon Holt. 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. 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 Residuum (2004), commission from the Orchestra of the Swan Tilting (2005), commission from the London Symphony Orchestra Spine (2005), commission from the Aldeburgh Festival As With Voices And With Tears (2010), commission for The Portsmouth Grammar School Christmas hath a darkness (2011), commission for A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, King's College Cambridge 2011. "Between Worlds" (2015), a commission from The Barbican Centre, for The English National Opera.

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. Her first commission for The Proms, 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, experimental rock, disco, bebop, alt-pop and modernism. 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, She has also collaborated with the video artist Zara Matthews. The Independent said of her:

Of her 2006 work Falling Angel, Davies said in the Daily Telegraph:

Recordings

Davies has been the subject of three portrait CDs, Troubairitz (Nonclassical Recordings, 2011), Spine (NMC Recordings, 2012) and Nature (NMC, 2021). Other compositions appear in various anthologies, notably on the NMC label.

Compositions Davies' first opera, Between Worlds, is about the terror attacks in the USA in 2001. Her chamber opera of 2018, Cave, with Drake as librettist again, was staged in an abandoned industrial warehouse by The Royal Opera. It uses electronics as well as a small ensemble and "only two singers".

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