Bedroom Community

Born in Vermont in 1981 and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, New York-based composer Nico Muhly graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature. In 2004 he received a Masters in Music from the Juilliard School, where he studied under Christopher Rouse and John Corigliano. A former boy chorister, Muhly has composed extensively for choir, including commissions from the Clare College Choir and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. New York’s Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue commissioned and performed his Bright Mass with Canons, later recorded on their American Voices CD.

His orchestral works have been premiered by the American Symphony Orchestra, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Orchestra (It Remains to Be Seen, a 2006 commission celebrating their 40th anniversary), the Boston Pops (Wish You Were Here), the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony (Step Team).

Film credits include Muhly’s scores for Joshua (2007), Best Picture nominee The Reader (2008), and the Argentine drama Felicitas, and he has worked extensively with Philip Glass as editor, keyboardist, and conductor for numerous film and stage projects. With designer/illustrator Maira Kalman, Muhly composed a vocal work based on Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, and he has worked with choreographer Benjamin Millepied to create new pieces for the American Theater (From Here On Out) and the Paris Opéra ballet (Triade), as well as for the Nederlands Ballet’s 2010–2011 season. His 2009 collaboration with American choreographer Stephen Petronio (I Drink the Air Before Me) was presented at the Joyce Theater in New York and will be remounted at the Barbican Centre in London in 2010. Muhly has also lent his skills as performer, arranger, and conductor to other musicians, including Antony and the Johnsons (The Crying Light), Sam Amidon (All is Well, I See the Sign), Björk (Medúlla, Drawing Restraint 9, Volta), Bonnie “Prince” Billy (The Letting Go), Doveman (The Conformist), Grizzly Bear (Veckatimest), and Jónsi from Sigur Rós (Go). Muhly co-composed fourteen songs with Faroese singer Teitur Lassen (Confessions), and presented them in a week of concerts with the Holland Baroque society.

Among his most frequent collaborators are his colleagues at Bedroom Community, an artist-run label headed by Icelandic musician Valgeir Sigurðsson and inaugurated by the release of Muhly’s first album, Speaks Volumes (2007). Leading up to Speaks Volumes’ American release, Muhly was invited to present concerts of his chamber music at both Carnegie Hall and the Whitney Museum. Since then, Muhly has released a second album, Mothertongue (2008), and worked closely with labelmates Valgeir, Ben Frost, and Sam Amidon on their respective solo releases. Valgeir collaborated with Muhly and perfumer Christophe Laudamiel to create the “scent opera” Green Aria (2009), which premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Carnegie Hall commissioned his song The Adulteress for soprano Jessica Rivera’s 2009 Carnegie debut, and that same year, countertenor David Daniels and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performed his Vocalise and Drones on arias by Handel. 2010 will see the premiere of a new orchestral song cycle for tenor Mark Padmore, violinist Pekka Kuusisto, and the Britten Sinfonia; and Muhly’s first full-scale opera, with a libretto by Craig Lucas, has been co-commissioned by the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.

 His name is pronounced [ˈni ko] [ˈmju: li].