ABOUT

BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) is an internationally celebrated Indigenous composer and music warrior for Native equity and parity. A citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Davids is co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan. He originated and co-founded Arizona’s renowned Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), championing Indigenous youth to compose written music. As an American Indian Music Scholar, Davids is in demand as a composer, educator and consultant for film, television, universities and festivals. He is a master performer of American Indian instruments and styles. Known especially for his signature quartz crystal flutes and colorful orchestral textures, Davids remains one of the country’s most sought after composers.

Brent Michael Davids’ composer career spans nearly five decades, including awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP, Rockefeller Foundation, In-Vision, Park City Film Music Festival, School for Advanced Research, Creative Capital, MAP Fund, Forge Project, Meet-The-Composer, Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and Jerome Foundation, among others. Awarded by the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, Davids presented in a month-long tour of Russia, lecturing and performing in Khabarovsk, Birobidjan, Vladivostok and Moscow (2011). International ensembles have premiered his works globally in Austria, Bermuda, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and throughout the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Disney Concert Hall, Tanglewood Music Center’s Koussevitzky Shed and Ozawa Hall, Rothko Chapel, The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, and The Kennedy Center.

South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and the famed Porcupine Singers (drum group) performed Davids’ “Black Hills Olowan” on a SDPB-TV network special (2009) following a road trip to Lakota tribal communities across South Dakota. Innova Recordings released “Black Hills Olowan” on Compact Disc in 2022.

New Mexico Symphony and Chorus premiered “Santa Fe 400th Symphony” at the Lensic Performing Arts Center (2010). The City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, commissioned Davids to commemorate the city’s 400th anniversary. The work featured flamenco guitarist Anna Maria Cardinalli-Padilla and the composer on flute. The lyrics for the chorus were written by New Mexico’s Poet Laureate Valerie Martinez.

Mankato Symphony Orchestra and the renowned Maza Kute Singers (drum group) performed a full concert of Davids’ orchestra works on the “Dakota Music Tour” throughout southern Minnesota (2011). The tour was filmed for TV broadcast the following year.

Davids’ “Powwow Symphony” (for Powwow M.C. and Orchestra) was premiered by New Mexico Symphony (1999), Phoenix Symphony (2002), and Mankato Symphony (2011). Commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, his “Canyon Sunrise” (1996) premiered at the Kennedy Center to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center and the 60th Anniversary of the NSO. Garrison Keillor asked Davids for the orchestra work, “Prayer & Celebration” (2005), that premiered on “A Prairie Home Companion” show.

In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts named Davids among the nation’s most celebrated choral composers in its project “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius,” along with Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Foster, and 25 others. He has worked extensively in the choral field, often featured as a clinician for conventions, including the Sixth Annual World Choral Symposium held in Minneapolis (2003). The Venice Biennale Musica 2022 featured Davids’ choral music on a concert of his works including a new commission. Grammy Award-winning Chanticleer has commissioned Davids multiple times, for “Night Chant” (1997), “Mohican Soup” (1999), “Un-Covered Wagon” (2003), and “Leather Stocking” (2012).

Many of Davids’ works employ traditional Native American instruments and unique instruments of his own design, including a soprano quartz crystal flute (1989), bass quartz crystal flute (1991), and air or water percussion instruments that chirp or whistle. Many of his bowl-shaped devices and resonating drums can be bowed, shaken, or tapped. He fashions ink manuscripts that are themselves visual works of art.

As an educator, Davids originated and co-founded the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP) in Arizona (2000), and the Composer Apprentice National Outreach Endeavor (CANOE) in Minnesota (2005) and Wisconsin (2014), to teach Native youth to compose written concert music. Under these music literacy programs, hundreds of students have successfully written scores for string quartet and orchestra, without prior ability to read music before Davids’ innovative curriculum.

Davids holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Composition from Northern Illinois University (1981) and Arizona State University (1992) respectively, trained at Redford’s Sundance Institute, and apprenticed with film composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare In Love). Brent Michael Davids has garnered the Distinguished Alumni Awards from both of the universities he attended, NIU (1996) and ASU (2004), and has been nominated for the prestigious CalArts Alpert Award two times (1995, 2006). The prestigious Indian Summer Festival awarded Davids its “Lifetime Achievement Award” in music (2015).

Davids won a Silver Medal for “Excellence in Original Scoring” from the Park City Film Music Festival (2011) for his orchestral score to the animated feature “Valor’s Kids.” Davids has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, Hallmark, NPR, PBS, NAPT, and National Geographic. Davids’ film scores include: “Bring Her Home” (2020), “The People’s Protectors” (2018), “Lake of Betrayal” (2017), “The Mayors of Shiprock” (2017), “Viva Diva” (2107), “Waabooz” (2016), Iroquois Creation Story” (2015), “The Jingle Dress Tradition” (2015), “By Our Nature” (2015), “Living With the Land” (2012), “Valor’s Kids” (2011), “Opal” (2011), “Raccoon & Crawfish” (2007), “The 1920 Last of the Mohicans” (2003), “World of American Indian Dance” (2003), “The Business of Fancy Dancing” (2002), “The Silent Enemy” (1996), and “Bright Circle” (2006).

Davids’ most recent project is “Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People.” This major work tackles the genocidal founding of America, giving voice to America’s Indigenous People. “Requiem” exposes a specific genocide in each state, juxtaposing genocidal texts from America’s founding against historical letters from American Indians themselves. In addition to the Western singers and orchestra, each performance will feature Indigenous singers recruited from local tribal communities. Once completed, it is hoped that “Requiem” will tour every state in the country.