Anthony Davis (born February 20, 1951)[1] is an American pianist andcomposer. He incorporates several styles includingjazz,rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesiangamelan, andexperimental music.[2] He has played with several groups and is also a professor of music at theUniversity of California, San Diego.
Davis is perhaps best known for hisoperas; he has been called "the dean of African-American opera composers."[3] His better known compositions includeX, The Life and Times of Malcolm X,[1] which was premiered by theNew York City Opera in 1986;Amistad, which premiered with theLyric Opera of Chicago in 1997; andWakonda's Dream, which premiered atOpera Omaha in 2007. His operaThe Central Park Five premiered on June 15, 2019, at theLong Beach Opera Company in California. It won him aPulitzer Prize for Music on May 4, 2020.[4][5]
Davis was born inPaterson, New Jersey in 1951.[1] The son of Professor Charles Davis, an expert on authorRichard Wright, Davis was brought up in a series of college towns.[6] He has a 1975 degree fromYale University, and has taught at Yale andHarvard University.[7]
Davis is a Distinguished Professor of Music at theUniversity of California, San Diego, having joined the department in 1996.[8] He has received acclaim as afree-jazz pianist, a co-leader orsideman with various ensembles.[1] Such ensembles include those that featured Smith asbandleader from 1974 to 1977. He has played withAnthony Braxton andLeo Smith.[1] In 1981, Davis formed anoctet called Episteme.[1] He also wrote theincidental music for the 1993Broadway version ofTony Kushner'sAngels in America.[7]
Many of his operas have explored people and events from African-American history. In a 1986 interview with writerSamuel R. Delany and historianHenry Louis Gates, Jr., Anthony Davis provides a detailed account of his influences and motivations for writingX, The Life and Times of Malcolm X.[9] In 1997 his operaAmistad, with a libretto by his cousinThulani Davis, premiered at theChicago Lyric Opera. Its ambition was recognized but the production received mixed reviews. It was accepted for production in 2008 atSpoleto Festival USA. It underwent a major revision and the production was highly praised.Opera Today said that the revisedAmistad 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."[10]
Davis has also explored Native American history in his work. His operaWakonda's Dream (2007), with a libretto byYusef Komunyakaa, is a tale of a contemporaryNative AmericanPonca family in Nebraska and the history that affects them.[11]
His opera,Lilith, (libretto byAllan Havis) had its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center atUCSD on December 4, 2009. The story is about the demon figure of Jewish mythology who was sometimes said to be biblicalAdam's first wife. It is set in a modern era.
He began working on the music for the operaThe Central Park Five in 2014. An early version, titledFive, was performed inNewark, New Jersey in 2016 by theTrilogy Company.[3] The librettist for both the early and final versions was playwrightRichard Wesley.The Central Park Five premiered on June 15, 2019, in a production by the Long Beach Opera Company inSan Pedro, California.[12] In 2020 the work won him thePulitzer Prize for Music.[5] He is the thirdUCSD professor in the university's 60-year history to win a Pulitzer.[13] 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."[14] He learned that he had won the prize while in aZoom meeting with music faculty colleagues, so they all heard the phone call; one of them later commented "Best Zoombomb ever!"[13]
In 2022, theDetroit Opera staged a production ofX, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, directed byRobert O'Hara.[15] This was followed by theMetropolitan Opera's production of the same opera in Fall 2023, which received significant critical acclaim in sources such asThe New York Times,[16] San Francisco Classical Voice[17] andSmithsonian Magazine.[18]
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.[19]
Since 2024 he has been composing an opera based on the children's bookPancho Rabbit and the Coyote byDuncan Tonatiuh.[20]
Davis's first wife was the science fiction writer Deborah Atherton (1951-2014),[21] 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,[22][23][24] and the two had a son named Jonah (born c. 1997), who was a professional baseball player.[25][22]
(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, theWilliam McGlaughlin led theKansas City Symphony Orchestra.)
WithBarry Altschul
WithRay Anderson
WithAnthony Braxton
WithMarion Brown
WithBaikida Carroll
WithChico Freeman
WithJay Hoggard
WithLeroy Jenkins
WithGeorge E. Lewis
WithBobby Previte
WithDavid Murray
WithWadada Leo Smith
