2011 IPPEC Examiner

Dr. Marshall Davies

Sam Houston State University
　

Pianist and teacher Dr. Marshall Davies is a faculty member at Sam Houston State University School of Music, where he teaches class piano and plays in the faculty jazz combo. Dr. Davies is an active performer. Most recently, at the SHSU Contemporary Music Festival in March 2011, he had the honor of presenting works by two composers on the SHSU faculty, premiering several of the short piano pieces from David Farrell's Postcards from the Journey West and giving the American premiere of Brian Herrington's Chaconne.

Dr. Davies graduated from Eastman School of Music as a Master of Music in Performance and Literature (Piano) in 1992 and as a Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature (Piano) in 1996. His major piano teachers at Eastman were Anton Nel, Fernando Laires, and Douglas Humpherys. He won Eastman Graduate Teaching Awards for five straight years, teaching keyboard theory and teaching and supervising Freshman Aural Skills. He served one year as president of Eastman’s Graduate Student Association. During this time he also worked as an accompanist for the Advent Gospel Choir at Jefferson Street Seventh-Day Adventist Church in downtown Rochester and for a community choir, the Irondequoit Chorale.

Dr. Davies studied piano with Paul Pollei and Douglas Humpherys at Brigham Young University, where he earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy and recieved several awards and scholarships, including the Piano Performance Award.

Dr. Davies grew up in California, Washington, and Idaho, graduating from Springfield HighSchool in Springfield, Illinois. He served a mission in Taiwan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Just prior to moving to the Houston are ain 2004, he lived in Taiwan for eight years, performing and teaching piano and jazz privatelyand as a faculty member at National Sun-Yat Sen University and at Tainan University of Technology. He lives in the northwest Houston area with his wife, Mandy, and three sons.