Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director Director of Music Programs
CHRISTOPHER DAVIS
Biography
As an international soloist and symphonic, chamber and opera musician, north-American clarinetist and conductor
Christopher Davis has been active professionally for more than 30 years. He has performed as principal/solo
clarinetist of the Kobe City Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Salt Lake Symphony, Utah Philharmonia, Utah
Musical Theatre, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Nevada Opera Theatre, and the College Band Directors National
Association Intercollegiate Band (of the USA and Canada), among others, and is also a respected music educator
and arranger.
Davis has given solo, chamber music and symphony concerts coast-to-coast in the USA, Canada, Japan, South
Korea, and Mexico, having collaborated and performed with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell,
Rachel Barton, Zuill Bailey, Andre Watts, Leslie Howard, Frederick Fennell, Col. John Bourgeois, Takayoshi “Tad”
Suzuki, Luciano Pavarotti, Frederica von Stade, Andrea Bocelli, Mandy Patinkin, Linda Eder, and Anne Murray. As
a teenager, Davis performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto as featured soloist in a nationally televised youth
orchestra showcase concert for United States President George H.W. Bush. He was the soloist in the Nevada
premiere of the Howard Blake Clarinet Concerto and has also premiered works of composers Eric Ewazen, Daron
Hagen, Nolan Stolz, and Jiaming Chen.
Davis has performed on the soundtracks of 13 films. He is the past winner of numerous solo competitions and is a
frequent guest soloist with orchestras and bands. He earned degrees in clarinet performance and in psychology on
full orchestral scholarships from the University of Utah and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas while serving as
the principal/solo clarinetist of each institution’s premier concert ensembles. His principal clarinet teachers over the
years were Kathy Pope (Ballet West Orchestra), Raphael Sanders (San Francisco Symphony), and Felix Viscuglia
(Boston Symphony). Davis studied in Los Angeles intensively with Kalman Bloch (Los Angeles Philiharmonic)
and Mitchell Lurie (USC), and he has performed for the master classes of Béla Kovács, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr,
David Shifrin, Jon Manasse (American Ballet and Metropolitan Opera), Mitchell Lurie, Kalman Bloch, Christie
Lundquist (Utah Symphony), Seiki Shinohe (Berlin Symphony), Kohichi Hamanaka (NHK Symphony, Japan), and
Michèle Gingras.
Davis has been teaching clarinet since 1987 and had one of the most prominent clarinet studios in the western
USA for two decades. His students have been first-prize winners and finalists at state-level, national, and
international competitions. For seven years, he was the director of The Davis Honors Clarinet Sinfonia (the
acclaimed performing ensemble of his top students in the USA) and is now director of its Mexican counterpart, The
Clarinet Camerata of Mexico, the internationally renowned chamber orchestra comprised of the top students
of The Arquetopia Clarinet Institute which has become the most respected ensemble of its kind in Latin
America. Davis has been a popular adjudicator of solo and chamber music competitions in California, Nevada,
Utah, and Arizona since 1993. He was the clarinet specialist/clinician for the Clark County School District for eight
years, and for three years he served as the Nevada State Chair of the International Clarinet Association.
Originally from Los Angeles, California, Davis has made Kobe, Japan and Québec, Canada home during his
performing career.
Davis is an Ambassador Artist of Rovner® Products, world-class manufacturer of handmade woodwind
accessories.
Biography
As an international soloist and symphonic, chamber and opera musician, north-American clarinetist and conductor
Christopher Davis has been active professionally for more than 30 years. He has performed as principal/solo
clarinetist of the Kobe City Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Salt Lake Symphony, Utah Philharmonia, Utah
Musical Theatre, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Nevada Opera Theatre, and the College Band Directors National
Association Intercollegiate Band (of the USA and Canada), among others, and is also a respected music educator
and arranger.
Davis has given solo, chamber music and symphony concerts coast-to-coast in the USA, Canada, Japan, South
Korea, and Mexico, having collaborated and performed with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell,
Rachel Barton, Zuill Bailey, Andre Watts, Leslie Howard, Frederick Fennell, Col. John Bourgeois, Takayoshi “Tad”
Suzuki, Luciano Pavarotti, Frederica von Stade, Andrea Bocelli, Mandy Patinkin, Linda Eder, and Anne Murray. As
a teenager, Davis performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto as featured soloist in a nationally televised youth
orchestra showcase concert for United States President George H.W. Bush. He was the soloist in the Nevada
premiere of the Howard Blake Clarinet Concerto and has also premiered works of composers Eric Ewazen, Daron
Hagen, Nolan Stolz, and Jiaming Chen.
Davis has performed on the soundtracks of 13 films. He is the past winner of numerous solo competitions and is a
frequent guest soloist with orchestras and bands. He earned degrees in clarinet performance and in psychology on
full orchestral scholarships from the University of Utah and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas while serving as
the principal/solo clarinetist of each institution’s premier concert ensembles. His principal clarinet teachers over the
years were Kathy Pope (Ballet West Orchestra), Raphael Sanders (San Francisco Symphony), and Felix Viscuglia
(Boston Symphony). Davis studied in Los Angeles intensively with Kalman Bloch (Los Angeles Philiharmonic)
and Mitchell Lurie (USC), and he has performed for the master classes of Béla Kovács, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr,
David Shifrin, Jon Manasse (American Ballet and Metropolitan Opera), Mitchell Lurie, Kalman Bloch, Christie
Lundquist (Utah Symphony), Seiki Shinohe (Berlin Symphony), Kohichi Hamanaka (NHK Symphony, Japan), and
Michèle Gingras.
Davis has been teaching clarinet since 1987 and had one of the most prominent clarinet studios in the western
USA for two decades. His students have been first-prize winners and finalists at state-level, national, and
international competitions. For seven years, he was the director of The Davis Honors Clarinet Sinfonia (the
acclaimed performing ensemble of his top students in the USA) and is now director of its Mexican counterpart, The
Clarinet Camerata of Mexico, the internationally renowned chamber orchestra comprised of the top students
of The Arquetopia Clarinet Institute which has become the most respected ensemble of its kind in Latin
America. Davis has been a popular adjudicator of solo and chamber music competitions in California, Nevada,
Utah, and Arizona since 1993. He was the clarinet specialist/clinician for the Clark County School District for eight
years, and for three years he served as the Nevada State Chair of the International Clarinet Association.
Originally from Los Angeles, California, Davis has made Kobe, Japan and Québec, Canada home during his
performing career.
Davis is an Ambassador Artist of Rovner® Products, world-class manufacturer of handmade woodwind
accessories.