In recent years, Joel Scott Davis has made a name for himself as a composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, producer, educator, and multi-instrumentalist.

His commissioned compositions have been widely performed and recorded, both nationally and internationally, by the likes of Duo46, the Samford String Quartet, the Seraphim Singers, the Amernet String Quartet, the Shades Mountain Orchestra, the Cahaba Saxophone Quartet, The BAMA Players, and other professional, collegiate, and church ensembles at such esteemed venues as Carnegie Hall, the Palais Ferstel in Vienna, and Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire, England. His work has been released on the MSR Classics label, and published by Brentwood Benson / Capitol CMG.

Davis’s original scores have been featured in international film festivals, as well as national television, Internet, and radio broadcasts. His music spans a broad range of styles, genres, and emotions; critics such as Michael Huebner of The Birmingham News have praised his music for its “honest beauty” and “heartfelt harmonies,” while others have lauded its balance of “craftsmanship, sincerity, and musical imagination.” His work has garnered favorable reviews from American Record Guide and Fanfare magazines, among others.

Recently, Davis's String Quartet No. 1: Vespers was named a finalist for the 2020 Arlin G. Meyer Prize in the Performing Arts, after having been recognized as a semi-finalist and an honorable mention for the 2017 American Prize in Composition; previously, his Songs of Liberty cycle was named a semi-finalist and for the 2016 American Prize.

As an orchestrator, Davis has worked on studio projects for Brentwood Benson / Captiol CMG Publishing, as well as concert hall works involving the San Francisco Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Academy Awards Orchestra, and the Grand Rapids Symphony.

An alumnus of the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, Davis holds Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees from Samford University and Claremont Graduate University. He has studied with, and served as assistant to, Grammy-nominated composer Peter Boyer at Claremont Graduate University. Other teachers and mentors include Edward David Zeliff, James A. Jensen, Bobby Horton, Rebecca Remley, and Bob Burroughs. He has participated in master classes, seminars, and rehearsals with William Bolcom, Lowell Liebermann, Eric Whitacre, the late Steven Stucky, Samuel Jones, Robert Sirota, and Kurt Heinecke.

Davis serves as Professor and Interim Chair of the Division of Music in the School of the Arts at Samford University, where he was recently recognized as the 2019 recipient of the John H. Buchanan Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has held previous teaching appointments at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as well as Claremont Graduate University.

Headshots and Brock Hall photographs by Eleanor Stenner