Faculty and Staff
Ed Frazier Davis MM
Director, Institute for Choral Creativity; Executive Director, Vox Venti
Chicago
Vox Venti · Institute for Choral Creativity
Ed Frazier Davis (b. 1989) is an English-American composer, baritone, and conductor living and working in Chicago. He was appointed Composer-in-Residence for the William Baker Choral Foundation in August 2016, while living in Kansas City, and served through 2022.
After relocating to Chicago he founded Vox Venti (“Voices of the Wind”), representing both the ability of the human voice to emulate a vast range of timbres and the diversity of the Windy City. Vox Venti is a semi-professional ensemble of about 30 singers dedicated to unique, diverse, and emotionally powerful repertoire, with a special affinity for music by living composers, especially LGBTQ+ composers, women composers, and composers of color. The ensemble commissions a new work from a composer from an underrepresented demographic on every concert.
Lauded for “compelling, colourful orchestration” (Musical Toronto), his music is poly-stylistic, drawing on influences from Medieval song to post-minimalism. As an experienced singer he has a particularly strong affinity for writing choral music. His work has been commissioned and performed by Access Contemporary Music, the Aspen Music Festival, Bella Voce, The Crossing, soprano Erin Wall, the Lincoln Trio, PLEXUS, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
From 2012 to 2016 he was Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Chamber Choir, the last season under Doreen Rao. In 2014 he was named second-place winner of the American Prize in Choral Composition (Student Division) and a finalist in Chanticleer’s student composer competition. In 2015 he received the premiere of his first international commission from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Children’s Chorus, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, and was selected as one of four composition fellows at the first Big Sky Choral Initiative. In 2016 he made his Southern Hemisphere debut with a commission from Melbourne-based chamber ensemble PLEXUS.