“Que dites-vous?...C’est inutile?...Je le sais! Mais on ne se bat pas dans l’espoir du succès! Non! non, c’est bien plus beau lorsque c’est inutile! Qu’est-ce que c’est que tous ceux-là! Vous êtes mille?” – Edmond Rostand (Cyrano de Bergerac)

“It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.” - John Kenneth Galbraith (The Affluent Society)

Biography

Matthew Davidson (b. 1964, Toronto, Canada; now res. Montreal, Canada) holds degrees from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the University of Toronto, Canada, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Apart from concertizing in Canada, New Zealand and the United States, with ragtime, early jazz, “classical” and contemporary music concerts, he actively promotes the work of other composers (both as performer and impresario) and his work has received radio broadcasts in New Zealand, North America and Europe.

Dr. Davidson studied piano privately with John Powell and Rae de Lisle in New Zealand (through whom a lineage may be traced to Franz Liszt), with Bruce Greenfield and Phillipa Ward at the Wellington Polytechnical Institute’s Executant Music Course in New Zealand, privately with Lawrence Pitchko and Harold Heap in Canada and with William Heiles at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. As a composer, his works encompass almost every medium, including book, music and lyrics for two musical comedies, chamber music, improvisatory works, theater pieces, electronic and orchestral music.

Davidson is the recipient of commissions and awards from Victoria University, the Queen Elizabeth II (New Zealand national) arts council, the American (formerly Minnesota) Composers’ Forum, the University of Illinois, Meet the Composer/California, The Elgin Cultural Arts Commission, and he has been associated with the New York piano virtuoso of twentieth century music, Anthony De Mare and with the Kronos Quartet. He has studied theory with Alexander Rapoport at the Royal Toronto Conservatory of Music (through whom a lineage may be traced to the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna) and his principal composition teachers have been Jack Body in New Zealand, John Beckwith in Canada (through whom a lineage may be traced to Nadia Boulanger), and Salvatore Martirano in the United States. His music is published by Honeyrock Publications in Everett, Pennsylvania, and the Composers Association of New Zealand. His unpublished works are distributed by the Canadian Music Centre, The American Composers Alliance, SOUNZ, and the Bibliotheque Internationale de Musique Contemporaine in Paris, France. His complete works are held in archive at the Canadian Music Centre in Montreal, Quebec; and at the Alexander Turnbull Library division of the New Zealand National Library.

Some of his compact discs (e.g. the original Mastersound issue of The Graceful Ghost) have become collector’s items, and regularly sell on the internet for over $200.00. He has recorded for Stomp Off Records, Capstone Records, and the Mastersound label.

Critical praise for Davidson has come from such diverse sources as Gramophone Magazine (”…a remarkably talented pianist…as a performer Davidson has few peers…”), to Steve O’Keefe in Cadence Magazine (”…this disk by…Matthew Davidson is extraordinary.”), to recording artist for Vanguard, Epic, New World Records and Omega Classics, Max Morath (”…his [Davidson’s] stunning premier performances… mark… this pianist for landmark status and accolades – adjectives for which one reaches for the Thesaurus: prodigious, consummate, mighty. Well – sublime.”). Of his latest album, Talencourt, www.hbdirect.com said: ”He has…achieved a fine reputation as a concert pianist…and…his chamber music experience has given him exceptional insight into the workings of solo and chamber string music.” Prominent violinist of the violinfutura project, Piotr Szewczyk, has described Davidson’s compositions as “…very charming, sophisticated, and very innovative…”.

Awards and accolades include:

2009: Commissioned by Piotr Szewczyk to compose “Menuet pour le violon solo” for Szewczyk’s VIOLINFUTURA project.

2000: Funding assistance from the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission (Elgin, IL, USA) to re-release compact disc Stolen Music on the Capstone label.

1998: Grant from the American (formerly Minnesota) Composers Forum for performance of Music for String Quartet (subsequently performed at ‘Stolen Music’ concert, Chicago Cultural Center, IL USA, March 19, 1999).

1992: Awarded a “University of Illinois Graduate Project Grant”, and a “Meet the Composer/California” grant to perform at the Day of Music Festival, Santa Barbara (California), Society for Jazz and World Music playing American and New Zealand music for one and two pianos.

1991: Minnesota (now American) Composer’s Forum grant to compile a recording of Deux Plaisanteries for alto sax and piano.

1991: Awarded 1st prize in the Anthony De Mare piano composition prize, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

1985: Commission, Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council (now Creative New Zealand) to write a major solo guitar work for Milton Parker.

1984: First in Victoria University Music Department Composition Competition

1982: Second place in Victoria University Music Department Composition Competition

• Works (43)