Davis West is a Japanese-American violinist, pianist, composer, and arranger rooted in
jazz, classical, and fiddle styles.
Born in New York City and raised in Kyoto, Japan, Davis began taking piano lessons at
age 5, despite begging his parents to start him on violin. His love for harmony and arranging
grew quickly as he started playing TV show themes and Ben Folds songs by ear. At age 9, his
parents finally agreed to violin lessons.
In 2015, Davis earned his Bachelor’s degree in violin performance at the University of
Michigan. During this time, he composed original music and arranged jazz standards for a
unique string quartet eponymously called West Jazz String Quartet which performed frequently
in the Detroit area. He led several orchestras as concertmaster, including the U of M University
Symphony Orchestra (USO), Michigan Jazz String Ensemble, and the Pacific Music Festival
Orchestra (PMFO) in Sapporo, Japan. Upon graduating, he went on a world tour with Barrage 8,
a dynamic string group formed in 1997 operating through the League of Astonishing Strings
Emerging Artists Program. He played violin and keyboards for the band, which performed over
80 shows that year and gave outreach workshops to schools in 7 countries and 23 states.
Davis has had the privilege of sharing the stage with artists of varying styles, including:
Vadim Repin, Philippe Quint, Geri Allen, Byron Stripling, Christian Howes, Benny Green, Benny
Golson, Ben E. King, Audra McDonald, Chris Thile, Mike Block, and most recently with his
mentor Casey Driessen.
Currently a student at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain, he continues to write
and arrange music, expanding the boundaries of the fiddle and blurring the lines between
genres.

Davis West
Contact info:
www.daviswestmusic.com
daviswestmusic@gmail.com