Artist Bio
One of the “great living American composers” (New York Times), Anthony Davis is distinguished for his important contributions to opera, and for his symphonic, choral and chamber works. He is the first to write in a new American genre: opera on a contemporary political subject.
Photo credit: Michele Zousmer
One of the "great living American composers."
-The New York Times
Davis received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for The Central Park Five, which premiered at Long Beach Opera in 2019. The libretto by Richard Wesley is based on the true story of Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Jr., and Korey Wise, five teens wrongfully convicted for the rape of a white female jogger in Central Park. In May 2025, Detroit Opera, which commissioned the full orchestration, presented The Central Park Five in a production directed by Nataki Garrett and conducted by Anthony Parnther. On August 28, 2026, the recording of the Long Beach Opera performances was released on Platoon.
Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, featuring a libretto by Thulani Davis and a story by Christopher Davis, has taken on an almost mythic stature since its 1986 New York City Opera sold-out world premiere. A new production — directed by Robert O’Hara and co-produced by five opera companies — originated at Detroit Opera in 2022 and opened at the Metropolitan Opera in 2024. The 1992 and 2022 “X” albums were nominated for GRAMMY Awards®.
Amistad, with a libretto by Thulani Davis, recalls the mutiny on the enslaver ship Amistad. Tania, with a libretto by Michael-John LaChiusa, remembers Patricia Hearst’s abduction. Wakonda’s Dream, with a libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa, follows a contemporary Ponca family.
Davis’s new opera, Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, exploring challenges faced by families crossing the border, premieres in 2026 in San Diego and Tijuana. In The Reef, featuring a libretto by Joan Ross, Davis relocates two former lovers chronicled in Edith Wharton’s novel to a sugar plantation in Martinique.
Davis’s orchestral works have been performed by the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. He made his Broadway debut composing for Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. His choral music includes Voyage Through Death to Life Upon these Shores, about the slave trade, and Restless Mourning, evoking the September 11 tragedy.
A virtuoso pianist, Davis has been on the cutting edge of improvised music and jazz for four decades.
A graduate of Yale, he holds the Cecil Lytle Chancellor Chair in African and African American Music at UC San Diego. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and has been inducted into Opera America’s Hall of Fame.
(August 2026)
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