Randall Davidson

Music of humor and passion are the hallmarks of Randall Davidson’s catalogue. His works have enjoyed hundreds of performances throughout the U.S. and Europe and his work has attracted the attention of critics, performers and audiences alike for their dramatic and accessible musical language. Davidson’s catalogue encompasses nearly every genre: dozens of choral works, an opera, four ballets, an oratorio, a guitar concerto, chamber works, three orchestral works that have themselves received over 200 performances, television commercials, incidental music for theater, a major sound installation to inaugurate the Minnesota Children’s Museum, and music for rock, jazz and wind ensembles.
Collaborations with Garrison Keillor have produced two successful large-scale works: The Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra and a humorous oratorio, The History of Evil: Bible Families. The “Guide” has been performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, has been commercially recorded two times (by the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra), and been cablecast on the Disney Channel. The “History” (five soloists, theatre orchestra and full mixed chorus) has received productions in Minnesota, Colorado and Ohio.

A 25-year association with Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence (founded as the Plymouth Music Series) has resulted in a dozen works for chorus and orchestra including the church parable, The Fourth Wise Man, which has been produced two dozen times since its premiere in 1995. It was during a three-year Meet The Composer New Residency that he composed The Fourth Wise Man based on the novel by Michel Tournier and a small chapbook by Henry Van Dyke (The Story of the Other Wiseman). The Fourth Wise Man was heralded by the Minneapolis Star Tribune at its premiere as one of the outstanding commissions in the history of the Series and described “as lovely as anything being written today.”

Mr. Davidson is also a compelling educator who translates his passion for music through lectures, seminars, workshops, panel discussions, and pre-concert talks. Davidson is the general director of a two-week summer music camp called Junior Composers for young musicians age 14-20.

He has a long association with the Schubert Club of Minnesota where he emcees the weekly Courtroom Concert to sold-out audiences.

Special recognition has come to Randall Davidson through awards (a Gold Lion from the Cannes Film Festival), residencies (Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum, Actor’s Theatre Company, Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta), and dozens of commissions.

In 1993, NIKE International commissioned four grand opera commercials which were shown in cinemas and on commercial television throughout Europe, South America, Asia, and North America. One of those operas, Don Quincy, received a Gold Lion at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

Mr. Davidson is a member of ASCAP and has several works published by Boosey & Hawkes. He publishes most of his music through his company, Boys Art Music. He is a former President of the American Music Center and has had a long and active involvement with the American (formerly Minnesota) Composers Forum. His music studies were with Dominick Argento, Eric Stokes, Susan McClary and Paul Fetler at the University of Minnesota School of Musicand with Alf Houkom at Cornell College in Iowa.