About the Director
The Director of the Cal State Bakersfield Jazz Program and organizer of the Bakersfield Jazz Festival is Doug Davis, professor of music. Davis received his Bachelor of Music at the University of Tennessee, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Kappa Phi., and continued his studies at Harvard University, receiving his M.A. and Ph.D. in musical composition.
While at Harvard, Davis studied composition with Earl Kim, Leon Kirchner, Lukas Foss and Arthur Berger and was
selected by Leonard Bernstein to be the student representative for the Norton Lectures Discussion Group. In addition,
Davis received the Harvard Graduate Prize in composition four of the five years of his residency. He is the winner
of numerous fellowships, including the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship,
and the Paine Traveling Fellowship. His compositions have also been awarded the Contemporary Recording Society
Composition Prize, Knoxville Symphony, David Van Vactor, and Delyz Composition for Dance Prize. His composition,
"Psalm of an Orange Angel" for orchestra was selected in the 2002 MACRO composition competition and was recently
recorded and performed by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra in Budapest under the direction of Matyas Antal. "Psalm
of an Orange Angel" and his composition for voice "Love Letter" are both released on C.R.S. Last year, "Token" for
voice and orchestra was performed and recorded by Susanna Raymond and the Lviv Virtuosi Philharmonica at the
Ukrainian "Contrasts" Festival.
Among the jazz artists who have recorded his works on various labels are Chick Corea, Bennie Wallace, Eddie Gomez, Larry Coryell, Dannie Richmond and Steve Marcus. In addition, Davis has performed in concert with numerous jazz recording artists including Michael Brecker, Freddie Hubbard, Bob Mintzer, Bobby Shew, Glen Moore, Jack Six and John D'earth.
Davis was named Professor of the Year in 1987 by the Alumni Association and was awarded the honor of Outstanding Professor for California State University, Bakersfield in 1989. He was also awarded the Arts Council award for outstanding creative achievement in music in 1997. His composition "A Wish to Behold" and "Skylark of Many Hearts" were commissioned by the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra as part of the Bakersfield Centennial Celebration.
In 2003, Doug Davis received the WANG Family Excellence Award which is given to four faculty members chosen from the entire 23 campuses in the California State University system. Monies received from this award will endow a scholarship dedicated to the creation and performance of new music. He would like to thank all of you who have contributed to the success of the Bakersfield Jazz Festival for he feels that you, too, share in the honor of this WANG award.
"After listening to the brilliant compositions and playing of Doug Davis of Cal State Bakersfield, I'm convinced that Bakersfield has some of the best young musicians in America. I was very much impressed by the musician's originality, daring, and imagination in both composition and performance on their latest recording. I was also impressed with the ability of Davis as a teacher to train and inspire the musicians to perform with skill and understanding compositions of this level of difficulty."
David Baker
President of the International Association
of Jazz Educators