Anthony Davis (composer)

{{short description|American pianist and composer|bot=PearBOT 5}}

Anthony Davis (born February 20, 1951){{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|pages=636/7}} is an American pianist and composer. He incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesian gamelan, and experimental music.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/anthony-davis-mn0000084019/biography|title=Anthony Davis | Biography & History|website=AllMusic|access-date=August 22, 2021}} He has played with several groups and is also a professor of music at the University of California, San Diego.

Davis is perhaps best known for his operas; he has been called "the dean of African-American opera composers." His better known compositions include X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, which was premiered by the New York City Opera in 1986; Amistad, which premiered with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997; and Wakonda's Dream, which premiered at Opera Omaha in 2007. His opera The Central Park Five premiered on June 15, 2019, at the Long Beach Opera Company in California. It won him a Pulitzer Prize for Music on May 4, 2020.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/anthony-davis|title=The Central Park Five, by Anthony Davis|website=Pulitzer.org|access-date=August 22, 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://news.yahoo.com/central-park-five-composer-anthony-203037721.html|title='Central Park Five' composer Anthony Davis wins the Pulitzer Prize for music|website=News.yahoo.com|date=May 4, 2020 |access-date=August 22, 2021}}

Biography

Davis was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1951. The son of Professor Charles Davis, an expert on author Richard Wright, Davis was brought up in a series of college towns.{{cite news |last1=Ullman |first1=Michael |title=Anthony Davis: He composes |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1982-03-23_11_12/page/n107/mode/1up |access-date=August 11, 2024 |work=The Boston Phoenix |date=March 23, 1982}} He has a 1975 degree from Yale University, and has taught at Yale and Harvard University.{{cite web|url=https://music-cms.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/regular_faculty/anthony-davis/index.html|title=Anthony Davis|website=Music-cms.ucsd.edu|access-date=2 January 2021}}

Davis is a Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego, having joined the department in 1996.{{cite news|url=https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/anthony-davis-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-the-central-park-five-opera|title=Anthony Davis Wins Pulitzer Prize for 'The Central Park Five' Opera|last=King|first=Anthony|date=May 7, 2020|work=UC San Diego News Center|access-date=2 January 2021}} He has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader or sideman with various ensembles. Such ensembles include those that featured Smith as bandleader from 1974 to 1977. He has played with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In 1981, Davis formed an octet called Episteme. He also wrote the incidental music for the 1993 Broadway version of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.

Many of his operas have explored people and events from African-American history. In a 1986 interview with writer Samuel R. Delany and historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Anthony Davis provides a detailed account of his influences and motivations for writing X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X.{{Cite book |last=Delany |first=Samuel R. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48139558 |title=Silent interviews : on language, race, sex, science fiction, and some comics : a collection of written interviews |date=1994 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=0-585-37120-2 |location=Hanover, NH |oclc=48139558}} In 1997 his opera Amistad, with a libretto by his cousin Thulani Davis, premiered at the Chicago Lyric Opera. Its ambition was recognized but the production received mixed reviews. It was accepted for production in 2008 at Spoleto Festival USA. It underwent a major revision and the production was highly praised. Opera Today said that the revised Amistad was "much leaner, more focused and dramatically far more effective than the original. And in so doing they [the Davises] created not only a masterpiece of American opera, but further a work that — against a contemporary horizon darkened by undercurrents of racism — resonates today far beyond Memminger and Spoleto USA."[https://www.operatoday.com/content/2008/05/revised_amistad.php "Revised Amistad makes its mark"], Opera Today, May 2008, Accessed June 25, 2019

Davis has also explored Native American history in his work. His opera Wakonda's Dream (2007), with a libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa, is a tale of a contemporary Native American Ponca family in Nebraska and the history that affects them.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Steve |date=2007-03-09 |title=Of Coyotes, Men and Tribal Memory |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/arts/music/09drea.html |access-date=2022-07-03 |issn=0362-4331}}

His opera, Lilith, (libretto by Allan Havis) had its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center at UCSD on December 4, 2009. The story is about the demon figure of Jewish mythology who was sometimes said to be biblical Adam's first wife. It is set in a modern era.

He began working on the music for the opera The Central Park Five in 2014. An early version, titled Five, was performed in Newark, New Jersey in 2016 by the Trilogy Company.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/arts/music/central-park-five-opera.html|title=This Summer, Opera Grapples With Race|last=Cooper|first=Michael|work=New York Times|date=May 30, 2019|access-date=June 8, 2019}} The librettist for both the early and final versions was playwright Richard Wesley. The Central Park Five premiered on June 15, 2019, in a production by the Long Beach Opera Company in San Pedro, California.{{cite web |last1=Midgette |first1=Anne |title='The Central Park Five' in song: Composer Anthony Davis on his new opera |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/23/the-central-park-five-in-song-composer-anthony-davis-on-his-new-opera-2/ |website=The Mercury News |access-date=July 3, 2019 |date=June 23, 2019}} In 2020 the work won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the third UCSD professor in the university's 60-year history to win a Pulitzer.{{cite news|url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/story/2020-12-06/pulitzer-prize-grammy-nominations-and-library-of-congress-induction-cap-banner-year-for-san-diego-musicians|title=Pulitzer Prize, Library of Congress induction and Grammy nomination cap banner year for San Diego musicians|last=Varga|first=George|date=December 6, 2020|work=San Diego Union Tribune|access-date=2 January 2021}} He commented, "it's also very exciting for me that you can create political work that has an impact and speaks to issues in our society. I've done my career creating political works, and I never thought I would ever get a Pulitzer."{{cite news|url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/story/2020-05-04/anthony-davis-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-the-central-park-five-the-uc-san-diego-professors-fiery-opera|title=UCSD professor Anthony Davis wins Pulitzer Prize for fiery opera 'The Central Park Five'|last=Varga|first=George|date=May 5, 2020|work=San Diego Union Tribune|access-date=May 5, 2020}} He learned that he had won the prize while in a Zoom meeting with music faculty colleagues, so they all heard the phone call; one of them later commented "Best Zoombomb ever!"

In 2022, the Detroit Opera staged a production of X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, directed by Robert O'Hara.{{Cite news |last=Woolfe |first=Zachary |date=2022-05-15 |title=Review: After 36 Years, a Malcolm X Opera Sings to the Future |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/arts/music/malcolm-x-opera-detroit.html |access-date=2022-07-03 |issn=0362-4331}} This was followed by the Metropolitan Opera's production of the same opera in Fall 2023, which received significant critical acclaim in sources such as The New York Times,{{cite news|last1=Barone|first1=Joshua|date=2023-11-05|location=New York City|title=Review: Anthony Davis's Malcolm X Opera Finally Arrives at the Met|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/arts/music/review-x-life-and-times-of-macolm-x-met-opera.html|work=The New York Times|language=en-us|access-date=2025-02-22}} San Francisco Classical Voice{{cite web|last1=Kerekes|first1=Emery|date=2023-12-12|title=Two Extraordinary American Operas Receive Their Metropolitan Premieres|url=https://www.sfcv.org/articles/feature/two-extraordinary-american-operas-receive-their-metropolitan-premieres#|website=San Francisco Classical Voice|language=en-us|access-date=2025-02-22}} and Smithsonian Magazine.{{cite magazine|last1=Nowakowski|first1=Teresa|date=2023-11-09|location=Washington, D.C.|title=Malcolm X Opera Opens in New York|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/malcolm-x-opera-makes-its-met-debut-180983228|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en-us|access-date=2025-02-22}}

In 2023, he composed the opening fanfare "If a Fish Kept His Mouth Shut, He Wouldn't Get Caught!" for the Bandshell's 100th anniversary, commissioned by the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, and performed in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series.{{Cite web |title=Notable Events and Performers |url=https://naumburgconcerts.org/notable-events-and-performers |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=Naumburg Orchestral Concerts |language=en-US}}

Since 2024 he has been composing an opera based on the children's book Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote by Duncan Tonatiuh.https://operawire.com/anthony-davis-to-compose-pancho-rabbit-and-the-coyote-opera-for-bodhi-tree-concerts/

Davis's first wife was the science fiction writer Deborah Atherton (1951-2014),https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/the-queen-of-grace-and-kindness-deborah-atherton-1951-2014/ and their son, Timothy (born c. 1980), is a science fiction writer living in New York City. In 1994 Anthony Davis married his second wife, the opera singer Cynthia Aaronson-Davis,https://www.timteeman.com/2023/11/11/how-anthony-davis-put-malcolm-x-and-black-power-center-stage/https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/anthony-davishttps://time.com/archive/6712252/music-up-from-the-underground/ and the two had a son named Jonah (born c. 1997), who was a professional baseball player.https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2020/05/04/ucsd-professor-anthony-davis-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-fiery-opera-the-central-park-five/

Works

= Orchestral =

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

(These two works were released on Gramavision 18-8807-1, a 12" long playing record, with Davis as soloist in the piano concerto and dedicatee Shem Guibbory as soloist in the violin concerto. In each, the William McGlaughlin led the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.)

You Have the Right to Remain Silent (Clarinet Concerto, 2007){{Cite web|url=https://music-cms.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/regular_faculty/anthony-davis/index.html|title=Anthony Davis|website=Music-cms.ucsd.edu|access-date=August 22, 2021}}
Amistad Symphony (2009)

= Stage =

X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986), libretto by Thulani Davis
Under the Double Moon (1989), libretto by Deborah Atherton
Tania (1992), with libretto by Michael John LaChiusa, about Patricia Hearst and events following her kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army
Amistad (1997/revised 2008), with libretto by Thulani Davis, about a case of an 1839 slave mutiny on a Spanish ship that reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Mende, freeing them{{cite news |last1=Page |first1=Tim |title='AMISTAD' MISSES THE BOAT |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/12/01/amistad-misses-the-boat/68e26cd1-fbdb-488d-bbc2-20b71d06915a/?noredirect=on |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=July 3, 2019 |date=December 1, 1997}}
Wakonda's Dream (2007), with libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa, about a contemporary Ponca family in Nebraska, and the spiritual journey of their son
Lilith (2009), with libretto by Allan Havis, explores a figure from Jewish mythology, sometimes said to be Adam's first wife, set in modern times
Lear on the 2nd Floor (2012), with libretto by Allan Havis, shifts the story of King Lear to feature a woman neuroscience researcher who has Alzheimer's disease, and her relationships with her three daughters and her late husband Mortimer, the Fool.
The Central Park Five (2019), with libretto by Richard Wesley. It premiered on June 15, 2019, by the Long Beach Opera Company in California.

Discography

=As leader/co-leader=

1978: Past Lives (VPA)
1978: Of Blues and Dreams (Sackville)
1978: Song for the Old World (India Navigation)
1979: Hidden Voices (India Navigation) - with James Newton
1980: Lady of the Mirrors (India Navigation)
1980: Under the Double Moon (MPS) - with Jay Hoggard
1981: Epistēmē (Gramavision)
1982: I've Known Rivers (Gramavision)
1982: Variations in Dream-Time (India Navigation)
1983: Hemispheres (Gramavision)
1984: Middle Passage (Gramavision)
1985: Return from Space (Wonder Nonfiction) (Gramavision)
1986: Undine (Gramavision)
1988: Ghost Factory (Gramavision)
1990: Trio, Vol. 2 (Gramavision)
1989: Trio, Vol. 1 (Rhino)
1993: Lost Moon Sisters/In Dora Ohrenstein's Urban Diva
1992: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Gramavision)
2001: Tania (Koch)
2008: Amistad (New World)

=As sideman=

With Barry Altschul

Another Time/Another Place (Muse, 1978)
For Stu (Soul Note, 1979 [1981])

With Ray Anderson

Blues Bred in the Bone (Enja, 1988)

With Anthony Braxton

Six Compositions: Quartet (Antilles, 1982)

With Marion Brown

Vista (Impulse!, 1975)

With Baikida Carroll

Shadows and Reflections (Soul Note, 1982)

With Chico Freeman

Kings of Mali

With Jay Hoggard

Mystic Winds, Tropical Breezes (India Navigation, 1982)

With Leroy Jenkins

The Legend of Ai Glatson (Black Saint, 1978)
Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival of America (Tomato, 1979)

With George E. Lewis

Homage to Charles Parker (Black Saint, 1979)

With Bobby Previte

Hue and Cry (Enja, 1992)

With David Murray

Ming (Black Saint, 1980)
Home (Black Saint, 1982)
David Murray Quintet (DIW, 1994)

With Wadada Leo Smith

Reflectativity (Kabell, 1975) also released on Kabell Years: 1971-1979 (Tzadik, 2004)
Song of Humanity (Kabell, 1977) also released on Kabell Years: 1971–1979 (Tzadik, 2004)
Reflectativity (Tzadik, 2000)
Golden Quartet (Tzadik, 2000)
The Year of the Elephant (Pi, 2002)
Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012)
America's National Parks (Cuneiform, 2016)

References

External links

[https://www.anthonydavismusic.com/ Official Website]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040412005656/http://www.schirmer.com/composers/davis_bio.html Schirmer.com: Anthony Davis]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040216213155/http://www.uctv.tv/mams/bios-davis.shtml Musicians & Middle Schools: Anthony Davis]
[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/15/arts/anthony-davis-beyond-jazz.html New York Times Feature from 1981, about Anthony Davis as pianist]
[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/arts/music/anthony-davis-x-detroit-opera.html New York Times profile from 2022]
{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p6371|label=Anthony Davis}}
[https://www.bruceduffie.com/anthonydavis.html Interview with Anthony Davis], July 17, 1992
[https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/anthony-davis-discusses-his-opera-x-life-and-times-malcolm-x-opera-three-acts Interview of Anthony Davis by Studs Terkel, 1992]