Background

Davidson was born in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 in 1952, and was raised in Oneonta

Oneonta

-Communities:*Oneonta, New York, A small city and inspiration for some of the other "Oneontas"*Oneonta , New York, a town that surrounds the City of Oneonta*Oneonta, Alabama, Blount County*Oneonta, Kentucky, a location southeast of Cincinnati, Ohio...

, New York and Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, Pennsylvania. She received her BA in piano and composition from Bennington College

Bennington College

Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...

 in 1976 where she studied with Henry Brant

Henry Brant

Henry Dreyfuss Brant was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.- Biography :...

, Louis Calabro

Louis Calabro

Louis Calabro, was an Italian American orchestral composer.Calabro studied piano and composition at Juilliard School of Music. Vincent Persichetti was his principal teacher there....

, Vivian Fine

Vivian Fine

Vivian Fine was an American composer.Over her 70 year career, Vivian Fine became one of America’s most important composers. She wrote virtually without a break for 68 years, producing over 140 works...

 and Lionel Nowak.
She founded the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers Forum and served as its director from 1999-2001. She was president of the New Music Alliance, a national organization, which has been responsible for the New Music America Festivals. She organized a nation-wide festival entitled "New Music Across America," which ran in 18 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In 1992 she wrote a widely-circulated article on women in music for Ms Magazine. She was a South Central PaARTners' Arts in Education Fellow.

She lives in central Pennsylvania in the historic town of Marietta

Marietta, Pennsylvania

Marietta is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,689 at the 2000 census. It is located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River just north of Columbia.-Geography:Marietta is located at ....

 with her husband and family.

Career

Over her twenty-five year career, Davidson has been commissioned by well known ensembles such as National Symphony Orchestra, OperaDelaware, Roanoke Symphony, Women's Philharmonic, Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, VocalEssence, Concertante, Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...

, Mendelssohn String Quartet, Cassatt Quartet

Cassatt Quartet

The Cassatt String Quartet was founded in 1985. Originally the first participants in Juilliard's Young Artists Quartet Program, the Quartet has gone on to win many teaching fellowships and awards and has toured internationally...

, and public television (WHYY-TV). Her music has been widely performed by many orchestras and ensembles, including The Philadelphia Orchestra

Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...

, American Composers Orchestra

American Composers Orchestra

The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...

, Florida Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, Relâche

Relâche (musical group)

Relâche is an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the group was formed as a composer-performer collective by Joseph Franklin and Joseph Showalter in 1977 and was officially granted not-for-profit status in...

, and Orchestra 2001.

She has been acclaimed for her authentic voice, her “vivid ear for harmony and colors” (New York Times) and her works of “transfigured beauty” (OperaNews). She writes “real music, with structure, mood, novelty and harmonic sophistication – with haunting melodies that grow out of complex, repetitive rhythms” (Philadelphia Inquirer) that is both “intellectually rigorous and deeply moving” (Star-Tribune).

Long-term residencies play a major role in Davidson’s career. As composer-in-residence with the Fleisher Art Memorial (1998–2001), she was commissioned to write for the Cassatt Quartet, Voces Novae et Antiquae, and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She also created the city-wide Young Composers program to teach inner city children how to write music through instrument building, improvisation, and graphic notation. She was composer-in-residence as part of the innovative Meet the Composer "New Residencies" with OperaDelaware, the Newark Symphony and the YWCA in Delaware (1994–97). During this residency, she wrote the critically acclaimed full-length opera, Billy and Zelda, as well as created community partner programs for homeless women, and with students at a local elementary school.

The recipient of numerous prestigious grants and fellowships, Davidson was the first classical composer to receive a $50,000 Pew Fellowship

Pew Fellowships in the Arts

The Pew Fellowships in the Arts is an organization established by the Pew Charitable Trusts in 1991 which awards grants to Philadelphia-area artists. The grants provide artists with an economic freedom that presents the opportunity to focus on their individual practices over a considerable period...

, the largest such grant in the country for which an artist can apply. She has been awarded four Artist's Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, CAP grants from the American Music Center

American Music Center

The American Music Center is a non-profit organization which aims to promote the creating, performing, and enjoying new American music. The organization was founded in 1939 by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter.The organization has a...

 and numerous Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer is an American organization founded in 1974 by the composer John Duffy as a project of the New York State Council on the Arts. It seeks to assist composers in making a living through writing music by sponsoring commissioning, residency, education, and audience interaction...

 grants. Her work, Transparent Victims was selected by the American Public Radio as part of the International Rostrum of Composers, held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Ms Davidson’s music can be heard on Albany Records, CRI

CRI

-Business:* Community Rowing, Inc.* Composers Recordings, Inc.* Computer Resources International, a Danish aerospace company* Copyright infringement* Cricklewood railway station, London; National Rail station code CRI...

, Mikrokosmik, Callisto, Innova and Opus One recording labels. Her first solo compact disc, "I Hear the Mermaids Singing," was released on CRI's Emergency Music label. Her second solo disc "It is My Heart Singing," was released on Albany Records (2006) and includes three works for string quartet performed by the Cassatt Quartet. The Cassatt Quartet also recorded her string quartet, Cassandra Sings for CRI. In June 2002, WHYY-TV released her piano trio, Bodies in Motion on CD and DVD formats as apart of their documentary, “Thomas Eakins: Scenes from Modern Life.” Her work, Antiphon for the Virgin, performed by VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, was released by St. Patrick Guild on compact disc in October 2002.

Discography

• Tina Davidson: I Hear the Mermaids Singing
• Tina Davidson: It Is My Heart Singing

External links

• Composer's website