Instructor of Cello, Piano, and Theory

Kevin Davis is an improviser, composer, and cellist. Originally from Appalachian Tennessee, he has at various times been been based out of Memphis, Chicago, New York, and Istanbul. He has performed, improvised, and composed in a wide variety of situations, presenting work at in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, most recently at venues such as the Stone (NYC), Roulette (NYC), the Phillips Collection, Recess (NYC), Constellation (Chicago) and conferences such as TENOR (Cambridge, UK), SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music), and festivals such as New York Electronic Art Festival and the EcoSono Festival (AK), and others. His compositions have been performed by the Hezarfin Ensemble, Dither, Ekmeles, Never Enough Hope, Chicago Sound Map, and others. Collaborative projects include work with improvisers Dave Rempis, Woody Sullender, Mike Pride, and Jim Baker, with the groups Locksmith Isidore, the ?stanbul-based Islak Köpek and Hoca Nasreddin, the Virginia/Chicago-based Restroy, the EcoSono ensemble and more. In addition to co-directing the MIAM Improvisation Ensemble and assistant directing the University of Virginia New Music Ensemble, Davis has played in the new music group Null Set and the University of Virginia Baroque Orchestra. Recordings of his music are available on Clean Feed, Contraphonic, Allos Documents, Creative Sources, Evil Rabbit, Re:construKt, Voice of Shade, and Parma Recordings.

Davis has degrees in music composition from the University of Memphis (BMus), the Centre for Advanced Musical Study (MIAM) in Istanbul (MA), and University of Virginia (MA, PhD). His doctoral dissertation concerns experimental forms of instrumentality and their effect on the shifting meaning of music composition. His current musical work reflects this research through works that embrace the mistranslation of formal structures—like poems, texts, or paintings—through the inexact media of movement, notation, and instrument. He is currently an Instructor at the University of Virginia, teaching courses in composition, music theory, and music technology.