Composer Anthony Davis Draws on Personal Experience to Create Powerful Orchestral Piece
In the mid-1970s, more than 40 years before he won the Pulitzer Prize for music, pianist and composer Anthony Davis was driving with his wife to Boston for a concert when a police officer pulled them over.
"He had put his siren on when he stopped me," Davis recalls. "And I was going to say, 'Well what is going on? I'm going to be late for my concert.'" His wife looked back at the police car, and told Davis to be careful and not to leave the vehicle — that the officer had his gun drawn.
The couple learned, eventually, that someone matching Davis' description had robbed a bank. "That could have gone left very easily," Davis reflects. "Because mistaken identity is a reality. We've seen what happened recently in Louisville, you know?"
In 2010, Davis turned this experience and others into a piece called "You Have the Right to Remain Silent." Davis chose a solo instrument to be the heart of the work: "The idea that the orchestra is interrogating the clarinet."
Photo: Anthony Davis and Anthony McGill after a performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March 2023. Photo by Winslow Townson
Contact Us
We invite you to contact us now about finding a date to bring You Have the Right to Remain Silent to your series in the 2024/25 season.