Many of us have not heard from Matthew de Lacey Davidson for some time. Though he is now retired from performing, his ragtime recordings are still around as CDs and YouTube videos. Matthew was born in Toronto, has lived in three different countries, studied in the United States, and now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This review by Max Morath regarding his first CD well describes Matthew’s music: “…[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.”
Davidson is also a published author and poet. He has composed a range of classical and popular music in his career. Matthew kindly responded to a series of written interview questions excerpted here.
Larry Melton: What inspired the multi-cultural aspect of your compositions?
Matthew de Lacey Davidson: In New Zealand, my first composition teacher was Jack Body. He had just been commissioned to write a work for orchestra. In that work, “Melodies for Orchestra,” he stitched together three transcriptions of non-western music: a complex Greek violin tune, a Sumatran flute tune, and an Indian street band, (trumpets, clarinets, and drums). He then filled out the orchestral part underneath the melodies, much as Bach would have filled out the voices in a chorale harmonization.
