The 2nd Monday Series at the College of Charleston School of the Arts will present a concert by cellist Wade Davis, a 2008 alumnus. An active solo and chamber performer, he has prepared for this concert a virtuosic collection of music by Francois Couperin, Gabriel Faure, Johann Sebastian Bach, plus others. Pianist Robin Zemp will join Davis on stage.
The concert will take place on Monday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m., at the Recital Hall of the Simons Center of the Arts, 54 Saint Philip St. General admission is $15 and $10 for all students with school I.D. Tickets can be purchased at the door, or reserved by emailing concerts@cofc.edu.
Hear a clip of Davis performing.
Davis was born in New York in 1982. At the age of seven, he began studying the cello in the String Project at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, S.C. After two years of studying privately with Ashley Gobbel, he began studying with Dr. Robert Jesselson, Professor of Cello at the University of South Carolina. Davis was the winner of the South Carolina Philharmonic Jr. Young Artist’s Prize in 1998 and the South Carolina All-State Orchestra Concerto Competition winner for 2001. His studies continued with Dr. Jesselson for eight years until his graduation in the inaugural class of 2001 at the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He then attended the North Carolina School for the Arts in Winston-Salem. After two years of tutelage with Marcy Rosen, Davis transferred to the College of Charleston where he completed his undergraduate studies with Professor Natalia Khoma. He was named the ExCel Student of the Year for the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston in 2007. He then obtained both a Master’s Degree in Baroque Cello Performance and a Graduate Performance Degree in Historical Cello from Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, as a student of John Moran.
Davis is an active solo and chamber performer in Baltimore, Md., and his newest project is an Early Music group called S’amusant in which he plays baroque cello. Recent performances include a fundraiser concert for the Westchester Oratorio Society’s Annual Gala in Westchester, N.Y., a concert engagement at Baltimore’s Walters Art Gallery featuring the world-premiere of “A Valediction of Weeping,” a new work written for the ensemble by Baltimore-based composer John Belkot, and pre-Evensong recital at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Roland Park.
When Davis is not performing he spends his time teaching for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra OrchKids program. He was published in Early Music America for the article “Seeing Ourselves in Early Music: Working for Diversity in the Field.” Davis writes “It is so meaningful to me as I think on upcoming events to not only to be teaching these children but to also have the opportunity to experience of being black in the world of classical music onstage, side-by-side with them. It is an incredible privilege to be showing classical audiences that myself and the next generation of young black musicians are thriving and will continue to strive for increased diversity in the field.”