Andrew Davis

Continuing with our series on the resident composers for the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival, today let’s get acquainted with Andrew Davis.

Though he shares a name with a famous British conductor, this Andrew Davis is a composer and electric guitarist from Columbia, MD by way of Texas. He earned a B.A. in music from Yale University in 2009, and then in 2012 completed his M.M. in composition at the University of Texas at Austin.

Davis’ early experiences in music included playing trombone in concert bands and guitar in rock bands, which have led him to explore a variety of different genres and musical aesthetics.

He has written both acoustic and electroacoustic music for a variety of media, and his works have been performed by groups including the JACK Quartet, the Argento Ensemble, counter)induction, the Boston New Music Initiative, the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, the Yale Concert Band, the Florida State Wind Ensemble, and the University of Texas New Music Ensemble.

Davis’ music has been heard at a variety of festivals including the Festival of New Music at FSU, the Manchester New Music Mini-Festival, New Music on the Point, and SEAMUS, and he has received honors from ASCAP, Vox Novus, and ISCM-Texas,

You can hear samples of Andrew Davis’ music in the embedded video window and audio player below.

Davis’ “Open Airs” is a short work for string quartet commissioned in 2012 by the New Music on the Point Festival. It is performed here by the Skyros Quartet, the graduate string quartet-in-residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.