Nico Muhly

Nico Muhly /ˈniːkoʊ ˈmjuːli/ (born August 26, 1981, in Vermont) is a contemporary classical music composer, who has worked and recorded with classical and pop/rock musicians. He currently lives in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan in New York City. He is a member of the Icelandic music collective/recording label Bedroom Community.

Biography

Early years

Muhly was born in Vermont and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. His mother, Bunny Harvey, is a painter and teacher at Wellesley College, and his father, Frank Muhly, is a documentary filmmaker.

As a child, Muhly sang in the choir at Grace Episcopal Church in Providence, and he started to study piano at 10.

Muhly went on to study at The Wheeler School in Providence. He then attended Columbia University where he received an undergraduate degree in English, and the Juilliard School where he completed a Master's degree in Music. He also studied composition with John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse.

Musical works

In 2005, Muhly was commissioned by Colorado Academy, a private school in Colorado, to write a song for the opening of their new Fine Arts building.

Muhly worked in collaboration with Björk on the DVD single "Oceania" in 2004, and he worked with Philip Glass as an editor, conductor, and keyboardist.

In 2006, he released his first album of works, titled Speaks Volumes. In 2008, he released his second album, titled Mothertongue.

In 2009, Muhly worked on various classical compositions with the Brooklyn-based indie-folk rock band Grizzly Bear on their third album, Veckatimest, and he worked with Antony and the Johnsons on the albums The Crying Light and Swanlights.

Muhly recently worked on two commissions for UK-based Britten Sinfonia, performed in January and February 2010.

The Gilmore International Keyboard Festival commissioned "Drones & Piano" for pianist Bruce Brubaker. The piece premiered in May 2010.

Muhly's opera Two Boys, a collaboration with librettist Craig Lucas and directed by Bartlett Sher, premiered in June 2011 at the English National Opera and will make its Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2013/2014 season. According to a New York Times article, the opera is based on a late-1990s British case involving a 14-year-old boy taking on the online identity of women to try to get someone to kill him, without success. However, in an interview with The Advocate, Muhly stated that the opera is based on the story of an online friendship between two male teenagers, one of whom kills the other.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Commissioning Club, Cantus, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Alfred P. and Ann M. Moore commissioned "Luminous Body", also a collaboration with librettist Craig Lucas. The piece premiered on September 9, 2011.

Compositions and projects

Choral 2003 Set Me as a Seal 2004 First Service 2004 Like as the Hart 2005 A Good Understanding 2005 Bright Mass With Canons 2005 Expecting the Main Things from You 2005 I Cannot Attain Unto It 2006 The Sweets of Evening 2007 Syllables 2008 Pater Noster 2008 Senex Puerum Portabat 2009 I Drink the Air Before Me 2011 Luminous Body 2011 Grief is the Price We Pay for Love 2013 An Outrage (BBC commission) Film 2006 Choking Man 2006 Cricket Head 2007 Joshua 2006 Wonder Showzen, Clarence Special Report 2008 The Reader 2009 Felicitas 2011 Margaret 2013 Kill Your Darlings Opera 2010 Dark Sisters 2011 Two Boys Incidental 2005 Iphegenia at Aulis (Gweek Project) 2007 The Magnificent Cuckold 2008 Prayer for My Enemy Orchestra 2001–2002 Fits & Bursts 2003 Out of the Loop 2004 By All Means 2004 So to Speak 2006 It Remains to be Seen 2006 Wish You Were Here 2007 From Here on Out 2007 Seeing is Believing 2008 Step Team 2009 The Only Tune 2009 Drones on O Lord, Whose Mercies Numberless 2009 Vocalise on Al lampo dell' armi 2009 Impossible Things 2010 Detailed Instructions 2011 Luminous Body 2012 So Far So Good 2012 Gait (BBC commission) Piano 2003 Three Études for Piano 2005 A Hudson Cycle 2005 Pillaging Music 2007 Skip Town

Percussion 2002 Beaming Music 2003 Time after Time 2004 It's About Time 2005 Ta & Clap 2008 I Shudder to Think Small ensemble 2002 Beaming Music 2003 Clear Music 2003 Flexible Music 2003 Duet No 1: Chorale Pointing Downwards 2003 Reading into it 2004 By All Means 2004 You Could Have Asked Me 2004 Ta and Clap 2005 The Elements of Style 2005 Stride 2005 Pillaging Music 2006 How About Now 2007 I Know Where Everything Is 2007 Principles of Uncertainty 2008 Triade 2008 Mothertongue 2008 Wonders 2008 The Only Tune 2008 Common Ground 2009 I Drink the Air Before Me 2009 Motion 2009 Farewell Photography 2010 Drones & Piano 2011 Drones & Viola 2012 Drones & Violin ? Fast Music with Folk Songs 2012 Planetarium Solo 2002 Radiant Music 2003 Honest Music 2003 A Long Line 2005 Keep in Touch 2005 Pillaging Music 2005 It Goes without Saying Voice 2003 Employment 2005 The Elements of Style 2007 Mothertongue 2007 Wonders 2007 The Only Tune 2008 The Adulteress 2009 Drones on "O Lord, Whose Mercies Numberless" 2009 Vocalise on "Al lampo dell' armi" 2009 Impossible Things

Arrangements and orchestrations

• 2006 Letting Go by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
• 2007 Miserere Mei (orchestration of William Byrd's Miserere Mei)
• 2007 Deus and Bow Thine Ear (orchestration of William Byrd's Deus and Bow Thine Ear)
• 2008 All Is Well by Sam Amidon
• 2008 "Með þér" and "Á meðan vatnið velgist" on Bestu kveðjur by Sprengjuhöllin
• 2009 Confessions, a multimedia collaboration with Teitur Lassen.
• 2009 Various songs on Antony and the Johnsons' album The Crying Light
• 2009 Various songs on Grizzly Bear's album Veckatimest
• 2009 Tricks of the Trade on Mew's album No More Stories...
• 2009 Year of the Dragon on Run Rabbit Run
• 2009 "So Far Around The Bend" by The National on Dark Was the Night
• 2010 Various songs on Antony and the Johnsons' album Swanlights
• 2010 Go by Jónsi
• 2010 I See the Sign by Sam Amidon
• 2012 "Climax" on Looking 4 Myself by Usher

Recordings

• 2007 – Speaks Volumes (Bedroom Community HVALUR1) (Includes Clear Music; It Goes without Saying; Honest Music; Quiet Music; Pillaging Music; A Hudson Cycle and Keep in Touch)
• 2008 – Joshua (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by various artists (Moviescore Media)
• 2008 – Mothertongue (Bedroom Community HVALUR5CD) (Includes Mothertongue I: Archive; Mothertongue II: Shower; Mothertongue III: Hress; Mothertongue IV: Monster; Wonders: I. New Things & New Tidings; Wonders: II. The Devil Appear'd in the Shape of a Man; Wonders: III. A Complaint against Thomas Weelkes; The Only Tune: I. The Two Sisters; The Only Tune: II. The Old Mill Pond; and The Only Tune: III. The Only Tune)
• 2009 – The Reader (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by various artists (Lakeshore Records)
• 2010 – I Drink the Air Before Me (Bedroom Community HVALUR10, Decca/Universal Classics 478 257)
• 2010 – A Good Understanding by Los Angeles Master Chorale (also includes five other choral works) (Decca/Universal Classics 478 250)
• 2011 – Seeing is Believing by the Aurora Orchestra (Decca/Universal Classics 478 273. Released 10th June 2011.
• 2012 – Drones with Bruce Brubaker (piano), Nadia Sirota (viola) and Pekka Kuusisto (violin) (Bedroom Community HVALUR16)

External links

• Tim Page, "High Scorer," Smithsonian Magazine, October 2007. Retrieved on 2 March 2008.
• Andy Beta, "Of Transgendered Violas and Transatlanic Collaborators," City Pages, Issue: September 26, 2007, retrieved on 2 March 2008.
• Rebecca Mead, "Eerily Composed: Nico Muhly's sonic magic," The New Yorker, February 11, 2008, retrieved on 2 March 2008.
• Molly Sheridan, "Composer on Fire: Defining Nico Muhly" (includes video), NewMusicBox, March 1, 2007, retrieved on 2 March 2008.
• Nico Muhly, 'Walls come tumbling down," The Guardian, October 5, 2007. Retrieved from Guardian.co.uk on 2 March 2008.
• List of published scores, Chester Music and Novello & Company, retrieved on 2 March 2008.
• Michaels, Sean (October 2008), "Nico Muhly [interview]", The Believer 6 (8): 72–77. 
• Keeping Operas, and His Life, In Brisk Motion, Vivien Schweitzer, New York Times, November 4, 2011
• Official website
• Myspace Page
• Nico Muhly on Brassland Records
• Nico Muhly at Now magazine
• Nico Muhly Bio