About this artist
Soprano Grace Davidson has cultivated a style of vocal purity that has made her a figure increasingly in demand among performing groups specializing in early music. She has also performed on numerous film soundtracks and classical crossover projects.
Davidson was born in London on November 29, 1977. She grew up in the city and attended the Royal Academy of Music, where she won the school’s Early Music Prize as an undergraduate. Her teachers there were Jonathan Papp and Beatrice Unsworth. A finalist at the London Handel Festival, Davidson went on for a Master’s degree at the Royal Academy. After her graduation, she began to find places in London’s top early ensembles as both chorister and soloist. Davidson has been a member of The Sixteen and has appeared with the Monteverdi Choir, The English Concert, I Fagiolini, and The Tallis Scholars, among others.
The distinctive timbre of Davidson’s voice has led to a demand for her talents in a variety of recording projects. As early as 2001, she appeared on the album Le Pénitencier by rocker Johnny Hallyday, and the following year, she recorded an album of Schubert lieder. In 2007, she released Grace Davidson: A Portrait with the ensemble Fiori Musicali, covering repertory from Hildegard von Bingen to Mozart. In 2010, Davidson took solos on an album of music by American choral composer Eric Whitacre, and she has collaborated in performance and on recordings with a variety of other contemporary composers, including John Rutter and Francis Pott. In 2015, she began an association with the Signum Classics label, appearing on the Seasons album that paired works by Oliver Davis and Vivaldi.
Davidson performs live as a soloist in various musical genres. She continues to appear with the early music vocal group Collegium Vocale Gent and has toured with Max Richter. Davidson made her solo debut on Signum in 2018 with a selection of Vivaldi and Handel arias, backed by the Academy of Ancient Music under Joseph Crouch. Davidson has also appeared in film and crossover classical projects, providing vocals for Howard Shore’s concert version of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and for composer Max Richter's Sleep, which she has also performed live on four continents. She has appeared on some 140 film soundtracks, including that for the 2020 film Over the Moon. Davidson has also performed frequently with classical saxophonist Christian Forshaw; the pair released their fourth album together, Historical Fiction, in 2021. The following year, Davidson appeared on the album Julie Cooper: Continuum. ~ James Manheim