Davis was born in
Paterson, New Jersey in 1951. He has a 1975 degree from
Yale University, and has taught at Yale and
Harvard University. Davis is a Distinguished Professor of Music at the
University of California, San Diego, having joined the department in 1996. He has received acclaim as a
free-jazz pianist, a co-leader or
sideman with various ensembles. In 1997 his opera
Amistad, with a libretto by his cousin
Thulani Davis, premiered at the
Chicago Lyric Opera. Its ambition was recognized but the production received mixed reviews. It was accepted for production in 2008 at
Spoleto Festival USA. It underwent a major revision and the production was highly praised.
Opera Today said that the revised
Amistad was "much leaner, more focused and dramatically far more effective than the original. And in so doing they [the Davises] created not only a masterpiece of American opera, but further a work that — against a contemporary horizon darkened by undercurrents of racism — resonates today far beyond Memminger and Spoleto USA." Davis has also explored Native American history in his work. His opera ''
Wakonda's Dream'' (2007), with a libretto by
Yusef Komunyakaa, is a tale of a contemporary
Native American Ponca family in Nebraska and the history that affects them. His opera,
Lilith, (
libretto by
Allan Havis) had its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center at
UCSD on December 4, 2009. The story is about the demon figure of Jewish mythology who was sometimes said to be biblical
Adam's first wife. It is set in a modern era. He began working on the music for the opera
The Central Park Five in 2014. An early version, titled
Five, was performed in
Newark, New Jersey in 2016 by the
Trilogy Company. The librettist for both the early and final versions was playwright
Richard Wesley.
The Central Park Five premiered on June 15, 2019, in a production by the Long Beach Opera Company in
San Pedro, California. In 2020 the work won him the
Pulitzer Prize for Music. He commented, "it's also very exciting for me that you can create political work that has an impact and speaks to issues in our society. I've done my career creating political works, and I never thought I would ever get a Pulitzer." He learned that he had won the prize while in a
Zoom meeting with music faculty colleagues, so they all heard the phone call; one of them later commented "Best Zoombomb ever!" This was followed by the
Metropolitan Opera's production of the same opera in Fall 2023, which received significant critical acclaim in sources such as
The New York Times, San Francisco Classical Voice and
Smithsonian Magazine. In 2023, he composed the opening fanfare "If a Fish Kept His Mouth Shut, He Wouldn't Get Caught!" for the Bandshell's 100th anniversary, commissioned by the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, and performed in the Naumburg Bandshell,
Central Park, in the summer series. Since 2024 he has been composing an opera based on the children's book
Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote by
Duncan Tonatiuh. Davis's first wife was the science fiction writer Deborah Atherton (1951-2014), and their son, Timothy (born c. 1980), is a science fiction writer living in New York City. In 1994 Anthony Davis married his second wife, the opera singer Cynthia Aaronson-Davis, and the two had a son named Jonah (born c. 1997), who was a professional baseball player. == Works==