Released November 2025; purchase a digital download on Bandcamp or purchase a physical CD from Alea Publishing & Recording
Bass clarinetist Mélanie Bourassa and pianist Kim Davenport share a program of works by women composers. The album features original works for bass clarinet and piano by Davenport, Mónica Cárdenas, Akiko Ogawa, and Ivana Loudová, as well as transcriptions of pieces by Louise Farrenc, Sophie Gail, and Nadia Boulanger.
The Song Also Rises
Released August 2025; purchase a digital download on Bandcamp or purchase a physical CD from Alea Publishing & Recording
Bass clarinetist Sarah Watts and pianist Kim Davenport share a program of works by black composers. The album features original works for bass clarinet and piano by David N. Baker and Malcolm Solomon, as well as Watts’ original transcriptions of songs by Florence Price and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
Kevin Oldham (1960-1993) was an American concert pianist who, upon learning of his HIV diagnosis at the age of 28, gave up performing to pursue leaving a musical legacy through composition. Oldham’s largest work was his Concerto for Piano, Op.14, which he premiered with the Kansas City Symphony just weeks before his death. The three-movement work is a virtuosic tour de force which powerfully expresses the composer’s journey in his final months of life. In spite of the work’s successful premiere, it unfortunately fell into obscurity.
In a true community effort, the work was brought back to life by musicians in Tacoma, Washington, in a new version for piano and concert band, which I premiered with the Tacoma Concert Band under the baton of conductor and artistic director Gerard Morris in November 2024.
This short film, released in June 2025, shares that story. I hope will inspire many more performances of this great work.
Solo recital: Variations on a Theme
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 7:30pm
Kilworth Chapel, University of Puget Sound
Experience a dynamic celebration of Black artistry in this recital featuring solo piano works by Margaret Bonds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Nathaniel Dett, Mikhail Johnson, Thelonious Monk, Florence Price, McCoy Tyner, and George Walker.
Transformation is the thread woven through the program. Each work is in some way an example of variation – from variations on existing or original themes, to transcriptions of jazz improvisations – variations composed in real time! In homage to the brilliant composers whose works she shared, Davenport also premiered her original set of variations on a theme by George Mingus.
Sarah Watts, bass clarinet
Kim Davenport, piano
Friday, January 17, 2025 – 7:30pm
Kilworth Chapel, University of Puget Sound
Bass clarinetist Sarah Watts and pianist Kim Davenport in a recital of works by black composers. The program included original works for bass clarinet and piano by David N. Baker and Malcolm Solomon, as well as Watts’ original transcriptions of songs by Florence Price and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
This concert is the culmination of a week in the studio recording the full program for the duo’s forthcoming album, The Song Also Rises. Stay tuned for more details on the album release!
If you missed the program or would like to listen again, please view the performances below!
On January 7, 2024, Kim shared a live recital consisting entirely of preludes, featuring the work of two African American composers, Richard Thompson and James Morris.
Listen and view the recordings from the recital in the following playlist:
I am delighted to share the news that my textbook, Learning to Listen, is now available for purchase from Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. Learn more, buy a copy, or request a faculty review copy on the publisher’s website here: https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/learning-listen
Music listening skills are vital for success in any music course and are also profoundly transferable skills for life and work. Particularly for non-majors with minimal background or training, coming into perhaps the only music class they will ever take, the prospect of listening, analyzing, and writing about music which is new to them can be intimidating.
Learning to Listen is the result of many years of teaching a broad range of non-major music classes. Designed as a concise, affordable add-on to the curriculum for any existing music course, the book shares strategies which have proved most valuable in helping a diverse range of students build their confidence as music listeners.
The book takes a student-centered, anti-racist approach, validating the reader’s lived experiences as a music listener and analyzing the challenges all listeners face in the 21st century, before delving into tangible, specific strategies that can be employed to build confidence and practice listening skills. Musical examples featured in the book are drawn from an array of musical genres and time periods, with an emphasis on musical creators typically underrepresented in music curricula.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: 24 Negro Melodies
Kim’s recording of the complete Twenty-Four Negro Melodies Op.59 of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is now available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. You can also purchase the 2-CD set.
Click here for complete details about the album.
“What Brahms has done for the Hungarian folk-music, Dvorak for the Bohemian, and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies.”
Coleridge-Taylor’s celebration of melodies of both African and African-American origin are a profound addition to the late-Romantic piano repertoire.
Thank you to all who attended my solo recital, Listen Children, on December 4, 2022. For any who missed it, you can watch video of the performances here:
The program included the Pacific Northwest premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s Wounded Children (2020), the world premiere of Mikhail Johnson‘s Fram di Pliegroun (2022), as well as works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still, and Eric Dolphy.
View the complete program and program notes here.
Featuring artwork by Laurie Davenport inspired by the music to be shared, the program was be a celebration of themes of childhood and dance. A poem by Lucille Clifton served as inspiration for the program:
Listen children
keep this in the place
you have for keeping
always,
keep it all ways
We have never hated black
Listen
we have been ashamed
hopeless tired mad
but always
all ways
we loved us
We have always loved each other
children all ways
Pass it on
Sunday, August 22, 2021 – 3pm – Lakewold Gardens
Artist’s Statement:
Self-reflection over the past several years of my work as a teacher and performer, though, has brought me to the obvious and painful realization that my own training and education was full of gaps – especially when it comes to exploring and celebrating the music of composers of color. And I am not alone – in this moment, all who are working as performers and teachers, eager to share classical music with new generations, have a lot of work to do to break down the white supremacy embedded in our music-making.
All of this is shared as context for the music I have chosen to share on this program – eight pieces by eight different black composers, representing a wide array of styles and time periods. Each piece spoke to me in its own unique way, and I feel that together, they begin to share just some of the phenomenal, diverse, and vital contributions made to the piano repertoire by black composers.
In addition to solo piano works by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Margaret Bonds, Adolphus Hailstork, and Jonathan Bailey Holland, I am delighted to collaborate with flutist Drew Shipman in sharing works for flute and piano by William Grant Still and Jasmine Barnes. Drew’s socially progressive programming and powerful musicianship have inspired me immensely over the past few years, and I don’t know that I would be sharing this program without his support – please join me in wishing him well as he heads off to graduate study at Northwestern University this fall!
Finally, it is difficult to put into words how meaningful it is for me that my mother’s work will be part of the artistic experience for those who attend this concert. A skilled musician as well as an artist, she is a rock of support for me for each new project I take on, providing feedback and inspiration every step of the way. The works she shares during this program were inspired directly by the program itself, and we hope that they provide an additional lens through which to experience the musical statements made by the featured composers.
Kim Davenport 