Jeff Davis

I was born in Chicago in 1944, raised in the Pacific Northwest, and have spent my adult life in Northern California (mostly), New York City, Texas, South Carolina and Tennessee. I currently reside in the wine country near Napa.

I started writing music before my formal schooling began, and have pretty much kept at it. I've been an active performer and conductor since my youngest years. My principal instruments were the recorder and the oboe and, much later in life, the carillon.

I had the unbelievable good fortune of having three prominent composers as mentors in my formative years: Howard Hanson, Deems Taylor, and Don Gillis. They each inspired in me a curiosity about the new and the artful, that was always coupled with a deep sense of our everyday vernacular. I've aspired to that in my own music. I've written for a wide variety of media: solo , chamber ensemble, large ensemble, liturgical music, opera.

A working musician for most of my life, I was introduced to the carillon as I neared forty, and have concentrated on that professionally for the last four decades.

I started studying with Ronald Barnes at UC Berkeley in 1984, and passed my professional examination in 1988. I was President of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America from 1996-2000, University Carillonist at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee from 1999-2000, and University Carillonist at UC Berkeley from 2000-2024.

I've been an active recitalist throughout North America and Europe, and served The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in several capacities, including director, and juror on both the examination and the composition competition committees. At Berkeley I taught over two hundred carillon students, many now active recitalists, and several holding titular positions. It was my greatest honor of my life to learn with them. My other honors include distinguished alumnus of the National Music Camp, Interlochen (1974), the Berkeley Medal (1993) and the Berkeley Citation (2024).