Limn for bass flute, contrabass flute and electronics
Density 2036: part iii (2015)
![Nathan Davis - Limn [2015] | International Contemporary Ensemble](https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/587568677-f6eb48af31541d568d894a2c283e8e70e45a034f628b91b6740637298df42874-d_1920x1080)
Nathan Davis - Limn [2015] | International Contemporary Ensemble
Written for Claire Chase for bass and contrabass flute, Limn intimates the instrument by illuminating its edges. Its primary materials are whistle tones - fragile and unstable sounds that dance around the overtone series of a phantom fundamental - and key mechanics, both fluttering and brutal. These are sewn together with Claire's voice, aspirated and exhaled, and extended with electronic processing.
Nathan Davis "writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority" (New York Times). His opera/ballet Hagoromo was produced by American Opera Projects and premiered at the BAM Next Wave Festival with the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, choreographer David Neumann, and dancers Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto. And Lincoln Center presented the premiere of “Bells”, a site-specific work for ensemble, multi-channel audio, and live broadcast to audience members’ mobile phones.
Nathan received other commissions from GMEM and Ensemble CBarré (Marseille), FringeArts and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (Philadelphia), Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany), Yarn/Wire, Claire Chase, Ekmeles, Miller Theatre, Ojai Music Festival, the Calder Quartet, and Third Coast Percussion, with premieres at Tanglewood, Park Avenue Armory, Guggenheim Museum, and Carnegie Hall. His music has been released on Starkland, Tundra, New Focus, and Bridge.
The 2018 Aaron Copland Fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation, Davis has received awards and fellowships from the Camargo Foundation, New Music USA, NYSCA, Meet The Composer, Fromm Foundation, Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, MATA, and ASCAP. He and Phyllis Chen won a NY Innovative Theater Award for their score to Sylvia Milo's play, “The Other Mozart.”
Also an active percussionist and member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, he has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and Nagoya Philharmonic. A graduate of Rice, Yale, and the Rotterdam Conservatory, Nathan currently teaches at The New School.