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Anthony Davis

About this Artist

Opera News has called Anthony Davis “A National Treasure” for his pioneering work in opera. He is recognized internationally not only for his important contributions to opera but also as a distinguished composer of symphonic, choral and chamber works. Davis has been on the cutting edge of improvised music and Jazz for over four decades and continues to explore new avenues of expression while retaining a distinctly original voice. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his opera The Central Park Five in 2020.

A graduate of Yale University in 1975, Davis is currently a distinguished professor of music at the University of California, San Diego. In 2008 he received the “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award from the National Opera Association acknowledging his pioneering work in opera. In 2006, Davis was awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and has also been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the New York Foundation of the Arts, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Massachusetts Arts Council, the Carey Trust, Chamber Music America, Meet-the-Composer Wallace Fund, the MAP fund with the Rockefeller Foundation and OPERA America. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020 and has been an artist fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Civitella Ranieri and at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy.

Mr. Davis’s music is published by Episteme Music and administered worldwide by Schott Music.