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About: About

ABOUT EFD

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Professional Bio
(Click here for Personal Bio)

Ed Frazier Davis is an English–American composer, bass–baritone, conductor, and "musical alchemist" (KC Independent) based in Chicago.

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Ed's music, described as "at once deeply emotional and sublime" (KC Arts Beat) and lauded for its "compelling, […] colourful orchestration" (Musical Toronto), is best characterized by a rich and captivating harmonic language, ethereal timbral combinations, and masterful text–painting. His influences are eclectic and numerous, but the music of his English upbringing—folk music of the British Isles, Anglican church music, and composers such as Benjamin Britten, Herbert Howells, and Michael Tippett—are perhaps the strongest. His compositions have been commissioned and performed throughout the world by many renowned musicians and institutions, 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 Illinois-ACDA Composer Award, 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.

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As a singer, Ed has consistently performed both ensemble and solo work with dozens of organizations across the United States. He frequently performs with ensembles in the Chicagoland area including Bella Voce, Consonance, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus, and sings every Sunday with the fully professional choir of St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church. In Kansas City, where he lived from 2016 to 2022, he served for six 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 five seasons with the Grammy–winning Kansas City Chorale. He has also worked intensively with Chanticleer as part of their Sonoma Choral Workshop, and has toured southwest England with the choir of Christ Church Winnetka.

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In 2022, Ed founded Vox Venti, a semi–professional 36–voice chorus and member ensemble of the Choral Foundation, focusing largely on works by living composers and dedicated to commissioning new works from LGBTQ+ composers, women composers, and composers of color on every concert. He was Vox Venti's conductor and artistic director for its first four seasons, and will assume the roles of assistant director and bass section leader in the fall of 2026.

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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 Bruce PolayMarta PtaszyÅ„ska, Kyong Mee Choi, Stacy Garrop, Chen Yi, James Mobberley, and Zhou Long. He has studied voice with Sarah Moran, Stacey Tappan, Jim Collins, and Vinson Cole.

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Ed is the proud legacy of his late parents, conductor Sir Andrew Davis and soprano/educator Gianna Rolandi, who were two of his greatest inspirations and whom he misses every day.

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A selection of Ed's compositions are published through MusicSpoke, and all other works are available to peruse/purchase on request.

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