Ed Frazier Davis
composer / baritone / conductor
Ed Frazier Davis (b. 1989) is an English-American composer, baritone, and conductor living and working in Chicago. He is the founder and artistic director of Vox Venti, a semi-professional chorus which focuses largely on works by living composers and is proudly dedicated to commissioning new works from LGBTQ+ composers, women composers, and composers of color on every concert.
Described as "at once deeply emotional and sublime" (KC Arts Beat) and lauded for its "compelling, […] colourful orchestration" (Musical Toronto), Ed's music is polystylistic and draws from many eclectic influences, from Renaissance madrigals and Anglican church music to postminimalism and video game music. He has composed for a wide variety of media, but as an experienced singer he has a particularly strong affinity for writing for choirs. His compositions have been commissioned and performed throughout the world by many renowned performers and organizations, including Access Contemporary Music, the ACDA National Convention, the Aspen Music Festival, the BBC Singers, The Crossing, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, PLEXUS, and the Toronto Children's Chorus. He has been named a winner or finalist in numerous contests, including the American Prize in Choral Composition, Chanticleer's Student Composer Competition, the Missouri Composer's Project, and the Young New Yorkers' Chorus's Composition Competition. 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.
As a singer, Ed has consistently performed both ensemble and solo work with dozens of ensembles across the United States. He frequently performs with organizations including Bella Voce, the Chicago Choral Artists, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus. In Kansas City, where he lived from 2016 to 2022, he served for five years as bass section leader and assistant choirmaster at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, sang six seasons with the William Baker Festival Singers (for whom he also served as composer-in-residence), and sang four seasons with the Grammy-winning Kansas City Chorale. He has also worked intensively with Chanticleer as part of their Sonoma Choral Workshop, and was recently an Artist-in-Residence at the Des Moines Choral Festival.
Ed has studied composition at Knox College, the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, primarily with Marta Ptaszyńska, Kyong Mee Choi, Stacy Garrop, Chen Yi, James Mobberley, and Zhou Long. He has studied voice with Sarah Moran, Stacey Tappan, Jim Collins, Gianna Rolandi, and Vinson Cole.
A selection of Ed's works are published through MusicSpoke; all other works are available to peruse/purchase on request.
Banner photograph by Malcolm Cook, all subsequent photographs by John Williams.
Compositions
Up-to-date list of works. Scores may be purchased through MusicSpoke (where linked) or by directly contacting the composer.
Organized alphabetically:
—Orchestral—
—Choral—
—Solo/Chamber—
—Vocal—
—Electronics/Multimedia—
—Arrangements—
Recordings
Full recordings of selected works, organized alphabetically. To hear more, please visit Ed's full SoundCloud page here.
Copyright © 2013-2020 Ed Frazier Davis