Excursions (Visits to Manitoba Statues) for woodwind doubler (baritone sax, piccolo, flute, alto flute) and piano had its US premiere Sunday January 26th 2014 with Teresa Payne, woodwinds and Yu-Chien Chen, piano at the Florida Flute Association 38th annual convention   “The audience loved it” “A wonderful piece”

Duo A La Carte: (Julie Husband and Heidi Peters) commissioned and premiered Excursions for Woodwind Doubler (baritone sax, piccolo, flute, alto flute) and Piano Dec. 2012. This fun – filled piece illustrates the versatility, styles and special characteristics of the woodwind instruments (and piano), in their musical encounters with well-known Manitoba folk statues (real & imaginary!).  More performances are slated with added percussion & bass for the fall of 2014.

More about Excursions

Listen to Excursions

The Happy Rock (!) – Gladstone MB  Movement No. 1.

TRANSIT OF VENUS– has again been chosen for the Opera America Conference -Showcase of New Opera in Vancouver in 2013. Previously heard in Houston in 2009 was the end of Act 1, and in 2013 the very dramatic end of Act 2 will be performed with members of the Vancouver Opera Ensemble

See more about Transit of Venus

The CBC Broadcast of the entire opera can be accessed on the Canadian Music Centre web site

If you have trouble accessing it contact us at ldavies@goodmedia.com or at 416-422-0432 and we will assist you in getting on the site.

A Jazz Piano Concerto   The live performance of the Toronto premiere March 13 2013 by The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra, Norman Reintamm conductor, and piano soloist Maxine Willan can be seen and heard on youtube: (below)Classically trained jazz pianist Maxine Willan wanted to play a jazz concerto, found Victor’s, liked it , learned & wonderfully performed it with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Norman Reintamm.

More about A Jazz Piano Concerto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EtIm5L7iis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIJiWqN_qak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXCZjxrnqNU

Victor Davies’ new work THE JOURNEY (Violin Concerto #2) (a brilliant a work in a similar vein to the Mennonite Piano Concerto), was commissioned for the talented violinist Rosemary Siemens by Elmer and Hilda Hildebrand. Rosemary’s dazzling performance of this showpiece concerto, written especially to showcase her outstanding talent, is coupled with Davies’ world wide classic Mennonite Piano Concerto!

Now buy both CD’s of the world renown Mennonite Piano Concerto! The original classical hit, with Irmgard Baerg piano, Boris Brott conductor, and the London Symphony Orchestra, and this exciting new live concert recording of the Mennonite Concerto with dynamic young soloist Leanne Regehr, and conductor Alexander Mickelthwate with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra recorded December 2/2012!

This performance marks an important anniversary of the WSO premiere in 1975. After 37 years Leanne Regehr, pupil of original soloist Irmgard Baerg, takes up the torch from her former teacher to bring a thrilling new interpretation to the Mennonite Piano Concerto!

This live concert and CD are sponsored by Golden West Radio in honour of their 50 years of broadcasting.

Buy The Classic CD of the Mennonite Piano Concerto
Buy the new Live Concert CD of The Journey and the Mennonite Piano Concerto
More information about the Mennonite Piano Concerto
More information about the The Journey

New CD release!

Digital re-master of the original LP recording for planetarium premiere recorded in 1971, with Skitch Henderson conducting players of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Victor Davies’ music runs the emotional gamut as it accompanies a pageant of images on a journey through the life of the Earth. From the symphonic and mythical, (Through the Milky Way); to cool jazz, (Pangaea -The Great Continent); to the violent convulsions of Earth’s Birth; the Latin heat of Carboniferous, and the wild energy of The Dinosaurs and creation, Genesis. CD Soundtrack: classical, jazz, rock

More Information | Buy CD in the Store

Transit of Venus has again been chosen for the Opera America showcase of new opera this year in Vancouver. Previously heard in Houston was the end of Act 1, this year the very dramatic end of Act 2 will be performed with members of the Vancouver Opera Ensemble.

The opera focuses on the tragedy of the real events of the life of 18th Century French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil, who is torn between his profession, his destiny, his true love, and the astronomer’s challenge in his failure to record the passage of Venus across the face of the sun in 1761.

Victor Davies took to the podium on April 28th at University of Toronto to preview parts of his opera Transit of Venus as part of a symposium about Venus crossing the face of the sun on June 5th, 2012. It was a very exciting day in the company of some very eminent astronomers, including keynote speaker Jay M. Pasachoff from the Hopkins Observatory and Williams College in Williamstown Mass.

This was followed by a real live sighting for 7000 people of the transit on June 5th at the U of T Varsity Stadium sponsored by the Dunlap Conservatory and the U of T Astronomy Department and included a very positive response to the 20-minute short video presentation of photos & excerpts from the opera.