THE IMPOSSIBLE SHE -- PREMIERE
Performances Up and Down the East Coast
ModernMedieval --- featuring Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek (of Anonymous 4), Eliza Bagg and Martha Cluver (both of Roomful of Teeth) --- perform DTD's new work Three-Winged Wisdom. Written in Hildegard of Bingen's imaginary language, this new piece will be performed alongside other new commissions from Caroline Shaw, Caleb Burhans and Joel Friedman.
Check out The Washington Post REVIEW.
November 11, 2018. Sykes Chapel. University of Tampa. Tampa, Florida. More information HERE.
January 10, 2019. AJ Fletcher Recital Hall, East Carolina University. Greenville, North Carolina. More information HERE.
April 7, 2019. Electric Earth Concerts. Keene, New Hampshire. More information HERE.
April 13, 2019. Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, NY. More information HERE.
Rhymes with Opera --- Premiere Performances
As part of the New York Opera Fest, Rhymes with Opera presents the premiere of DTD’s newest opera THE IMPOSSIBLE SHE.
Laine Rettmer, director
Andrea Merkx, designer
Adam Haslett, story consultant
George Lam, musical director
Premiere performances May 10-18, 2019. 124 Bank Street Theater. New York, NY. Tickets available HERE.
New Opera Premieres at Symphony Space with American Opera Projects: February 2018
Three Gertrude Stein Plays in the Shape of an Opera.
Music by Daniel Thomas Davis
Libretto by Adam Frank (with Daniel Thomas Davis)
Based on Short Plays by Gertrude Stein
Directed and Designed by Doug Fitch
When an oddball couple, their sassy housekeeper, a sewing machine, and a deranged radio all start singing, Gertrude Stein’s playful language is transformed into the ecstatic and uncannily beautiful new opera from composer Daniel Thomas Davis, librettist Adam Frank, and director-designer Doug Fitch. From a shopping expedition that turns into an erotic adventure to a presidential election party that goes prophetically and horribly wrong, Stein’s genius for upending convention is made startlingly relevant to our own cultural and political moment.
The world premiere, presented by Symphony Space and American Opera Projects, will feature an all-star lineup including vocalists Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek (Anonymous 4), Ariadne Greif and Andrew Fuchs, joined by the Momenta Quartet, pianist Dimitri Dover and musical director/conductor David Bloom.
Created and produced with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
FOR TICKETS, PLEASE VISIT: SYMPHONY SPACE BOX OFFICE
Premiere Production at North Carolina Opera: February 2018
North Carolina Opera presents the world-premiere stage production of the chamber opera FAMILY SECRETS: KITH & KIN. Featuring Andrea Edith Moore and Jane Holding at the Burning Coal Theater in Raleigh, NC. February 15-16, 2018.
Music by Daniel Thomas Davis
Libretto by Allan Gurganus, Randall Kenan, Michael Malone, Jeffery Beam, Frances Mayes, Lee Smith and Daniel Wallace
Directed and Designed by Francesca Talenti
For more information and tickets, please visit: NORTH CAROLINA OPERA
New Work for Vocal Ensemble in Washington, DC and Virginia
This program features four of Hildegard of Bingen’s most ecstatic chants, including O Jerusalem and O Virga ac Diadema, interwoven with new works by DTD, Caroline Shaw, Caleb Burhans and Joel Phillip Friedman. The new works are based on, or influenced by, Hildegard’s philosophic writings and her visions.
National Museum of Women in the Arts. Washington D.C. May 9, 2018. 7:30pm.
Virginia Arts Festival. Norfolk, VA. May 10, 2018.
For more information: VIRGINIA ARTS FESTIVAL
Dance Performances in Bristol and London, UK
Following an acclaimed run in San Francisco, Megan Nicely/Dance + Kate Elswit present "Breath Catalogue" in the UK. Featuring choreography by Megan Nicely and Kate Elswit and music by Daniel Thomas Davis and Stephanie Griffin, in collaboration with interaction designer Ben Gimpert and set artist Terrance Graven.
November 17-20, 2017 at Circomedia. Bristol, UK.
For more information, please visit BREATH CATALOGUE.
Chamber Works at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art
Imaginary Landscapes, featuring music by DTD, John Cage, Shulamit Ran, Paul Schoenfield, and Stephen Albert. Christopher Kendall, artistic director.
April 30, 2016
For more information, please visit: 21st CENTURY CONSORT.
New Chamber Opera Based on Plays by Getrude Stein
Please stay tuned for the premiere of a new chamber opera based on several of Stein's never-produced plays from the 1920s. In early 2016, these new works will be produced as part of the Arts/Humanities Council of Canada's Radio Free Stein Project, which brings together a diverse range of musicians, writers and scholars to stage the work of Gertrude Stein.Please visit the Radio Free Stein site for more information and project updates:
www.radiofreestein.com
New York: Locrian Chamber Players & Jacqueline Horner Kwiatek
Locrian Chamber Players and Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek
New York, NY
Acclaimed vocalist Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek performs selections from Follow Her Voice, a recent set of songs based on Sappho’s fiery and iconic Fragment 31. Program also includes works by Aaron Jay Kernis, Schafer Mahoney, Caroline Shaw, Victoria Malawey and Mei-Fang Lin.
Thursday, August 27, 2015 at 8pm (FREE)
Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive, New York, NY
San Francisco: July 16-19, 2015
Megan Nicely/Dance + Kate Elswit present "Breath Catalogue," a new contemporary dance work premiering at the Fort Mason Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Featuring choreography by Megan Nicely and Kate Elswit and music by Daniel Thomas Davis and Stephanie Griffin, in collaboration with interaction designer Ben Gimpert and set artist Terrance Graven.
For tickets or more information please visit: http://www.fortmason.org/events/events-details?id=3246&start=2015-07-16&end=2015-07-17
Chamber Opera World Premiere --- Spring 2015
The world premiere of Kith and Kin, a new chamber opera, featuring soprano Andrea Edith Moore with new texts written by seven widely acclaimed authors: Jeffery Beam, Allan Gurganus, Randall Kenan, Michael Malone, Frances Mayes, Lee Smith and Daniel Wallace. Akin to a collection of interrelated short stories, in which each writer contributed a scene, this new work for voices, actress and chamber orchestra will feature sets designed by photographer Elizabeth Matheson and from Burke-Campbell collection of American Folk Art Buildings. Hill Hall, Chapel Hill. Premieres on March 28, 2015.
Please visit Frank Statio's NPR interview with the artists:
http://wunc.org/post/family-secrets-explored-through-stories-images-and-sound
And please visit the project site for more detailed information:
http://www.andreaedithmoore.com/#!family-secrets/c12t9
Watch a performance of the lament from "Chinaberry Tree," one of the scenes in DTD's new chamber opera Kith and Kin. Text by Randall Kenan. Performed by Andrea Moore, voice and DTD, piano.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO
Ithaca, NY --- February 1, 2015
Cornell University's ENSEMBLE X, directed by Xak Bjerken, perform Real Country, in a new version for strings, marimba, piano, and Hammond organ. Including works by Andy Akiho, Timo Andres, John Cage, Charles Ives and Tonia Ko.
The evening's performers include:
Clara Lyon, Martiros Shakhzadyan, violin
David Quiggle, viola
Hannah Collins, cello
Michael Compitello, marimba
Andrew Zhou, piano/organ
For more information: http://www.stargazette.com/story/entertainment/2015/01/28/ensemble-returns-sunday-carriage-house/22451433/
St. James Theatre, London --- November 14, 2014
London's acclaimed and adventurous Lontano Ensemble, under the baton of artistic director Odaline de la Martinez, present the world premiere of Real Country. Here is a description of the new piece:
"Growing up in the rural American South, I’d occasionally hear the phrase “real country” as a way of identifying people – sometimes even my people, sometimes even me. It didn’t so much as describe a person’s profession or place of residence but rather something more qualitative – a characteristic walk or stride, a peculiar taste in food or conversation, and above all else, a richly accented voice thick with dialect and diphthong. It was something inside the body that just happened to make its way out somehow.
It’s that something within the voice that prompted me to write Real Country. Although I’ve titled each movement after a particular old-time country or gospel singer, I’m not really aiming to imitate any of them here – nor do I lay claim to anything resembling an “authentic” or “real” country style. First and foremost, this piece is a purely instrumental response, prompted by my listening over and over again, to a handful of special singers, all the while wondering and imagining – what sort of music do these voices invite? What idiosyncrasies and ornaments might I excavate from these old, strange and weird worlds? And how might I reimagine them in my own musical landscape?
There are, to be sure, a number of tunes here, too – some traditional ballads, some my own creation, others that fall in between. Some might recall the high-lonesome lament of the Appalachian murder ballad, others the ecstatic hollering of low-church gospel, and yet others the syrupy lilt of old-time country’s jilted lovers. Throughout it all, I think of these melodies as places to wander – pathways and byways mostly – each one traveled and populated by the peculiar, sputtering, plain and joyful voices of this other country – my country."
November 18, 2014
Cardiff Concerts present Lontano Ensemble and a diverse program that includes Daniel Thomas Davis' recent work Real Country.
For more information, please visit:
http://concerts.cardiff.ac.uk/events/2-3-and-4-of-a-kind-and-stateside-2-lontano/
Now Available on DVD
Julia Haslett’s award-winning film, which features an original score by Daniel Thomas Davis, is now available on DVD and for download. Praised as “heartbreaking and inspiring” by filmmaker Michael Moore, “An Encounter with Simone Weil” tells the story of French philosopher, activist, and mystic, Simone Weil (1909-1943) -- a woman Albert Camus described as "the only great spirit of our time."
For more information on ordering the film or to watch a trailer, please visit LineStreet Productions. For a discussion of the film and its score, check out the recent review in Film Threat.
November 24, 2013 - Baltimore, Maryland
“Music from an Imaginary Landscape” features the premiere performance of two musical compositions commissioned by the Walters Museum of Art in response to a mysterious, ancient Egyptian papyrus known as the “Book of the Faiyum.” One piece, by New-York composer Daniel Thomas Davis, reimagines the "Book of the Faiyum" as a musical guidebook to the imaginary landscapes of the ancient papyrus. The other world-premiere composition, written for the occasion by Baltimore composer Judah Adashi, recasts the City of Baltimore itself as a magical and mysterious terrain.
For more information, please visit:
http://thewalters.org/events/eventdetails.aspx?e=3141
