Artist Residency: Anthony Davis
Friday, Nov. 6 – Monday, Nov. 9
Concert: Nature in Full Score
Saturday, Nov. 7, 3:00 PM
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis comes to Ventura College for a residency, with public community events scheduled between Friday, November 6 through Monday, November 9. Heralded by the New York Times as one of the “great living American composers,” Davis is celebrated internationally for his operatic, orchestral, choral, and chamber works.
His residency includes masterclasses, conversations on his works and his process, a screening of his newest opera, and the Ventura Symphony Orchestra's performance of his piece "Tales (Tails) of the Signifying Monkey" as part of their fall concert, "Nature in Full Score" on Saturday, November 7 (3:00 PM/VC Yunker Auditorium).
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5
6:30-8:00pm
Screening of Davis's opera Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote
Location: VC PAC, Yunker Hall
Free and Open to all
Join us for a screening of Anthony Davis's newest opera, which follows a family's experiences crossing the US-Mexico Border.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6
1:00 - 2:30 PM
Chamber Music Composition Masterclass with the VC Composition Lab
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
Free and Open to all
2:45 - 4:15 PM
Discussion: The Process of Writing Opera
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
Free and Open to all
Anthony Davis discusses his craft, including The Central Park Five, X, and Amistad in a conversation with Ashley Walters.
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SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7
9:00 - 10:30 AM
Community Conversation: Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote
Location: VC PAC, Yunker Hall
Free and Open to all
A conversation about Davis’s current opera project, moderated by a member of the community, and an opportunity for community members to share their own stories.
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Concert: Nature in Full Score, Ventura College Symphony Orchestra
Location: VC PAC, Helen Yunker Auditorium
Open to the public / Pay What You Can Admission (https://ventura.vbotickets.com)
Ashley Walters conducts a program including Davis’s Tales (Tails) of the Signifying Monkey, Smetana’s The Moldau, Sibelius’s Finlandia, Vaughan Williams’s Overture to The Wasps, and The Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto with soloist Tarah Brown Gilson.
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MONDAY NOVEMBER 9
10:00 - 11:00 AM
Discussion: You Have the Right to Remain Silent
Location: TBA
Open to the VC community
Moderated by Ken Kallahan, Political Science
4:00 - 5:30 PM
Chamber Music Masterclass and Q&A
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
Free and Open to all
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis is celebrated internationally for his operas, orchestral works, choral music, and chamber music. Opera News calls him “a national treasure” for his pioneering music, and in 2023 OPERA America inducted him into its Hall of Fame.
Davis is perhaps best known for his operas. He was the first composer to write in a new American genre: opera on a contemporary political subject. He uses music to address power structures in a way that creates awareness, empathy, and understanding. His opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X made its Metropolitan Opera debut in 2023, and in 2020 he won the Pulitzer Prize in Music for The Central Park Five, which tells the true story of five teenagers who were wrongfully convicted in 1989.
His newest opera, Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, is based on the book by Duncan Tonatiuh and explores the challenges faced by families crossing the border. It premiered in January 2026 in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Davis also wrote You Have the Right to Remain Silent, a clarinet concerto inspired by his own experience of being held at gunpoint by police during a traffic stop on the way to a concert.
A graduate of Yale University, Davis holds the Cecil Lytle Endowed Chair in African American Music at the University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
For full Artist Biography, please visit: www.anthonydavismusic.com
All events to take place at the
Ventura College Performing Arts Center
4700 Loma Vista Rd. Ventura CA 93003
