Anthony Davis (composer)

Anthony Davis (born February 20, 1951 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American composer, jazz pianist, and student of gamelan music.

Background

Davis composed an opera entitled X (about Malcolm X), taught at Yale University, and has played with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In 1981, he formed an octet called Episteme. He also wrote the incidental music for the Broadway version of Tony Kushner's Angels in America. He incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesian, and experimental music.

Davis is with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader or sideman with various ensembles. Such ensembles include those which featured Smith as bandleader from 1974 to 1977.

Davis, a current professor of music at the University of California San Diego, has written a new opera set to be premiered in March 2007. Wakonda's Dream is a tale of a contemporary Native American family and the history that affects them.

List of compositions

Orchestral works

• Wayang V (Piano Concerto, 1984)
• Maps (Violin Concerto, 1988)

Stage works

• X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986)
• Under the Double Moon (1989)
• Tania (1992)
• Amistad (1997)
• Wakonda's Dream (2007)

References

External links

• Schirmer.com: Anthony Davis
• Profile at UCSD
• Musicians & Middle Schools: Anthony Davis
• Anthony Davis review at scaruffi.com