Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Nico Muhly /ˈiːoʊ ˈjuː/ (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.
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, then moved on to Columbia University where he got his undergraduate degree in English and to the Juilliard School where he graduated with his Master's degree in Music and 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.
Upcoming projects
Six of Muhly's choral works are featured on a CD recorded by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, A Good Understanding, released by the Decca classics label.
