Anthony Davis

“I wanted to create music that had the rhythmic vitality and the harmonic sophistication of jazz, but also the developmental and dramatic thrust of classical music.”

“Opera is a wonderful medium for exploring history, for exploring character.”

“I'm interested in how music can illuminate history and how it can give voice to the voiceless.”

“I've always been interested in political narrative, and I've been interested in creating political work, political art, that has political resonance.”

“I think that my music has always tried to address what it is to be an American, what it is to be an African American in this country.”

“I've always been interested in improvisation as a compositional process, and also in creating dramatic music, creating music that tells a story.”

“The past is never past. It's always present.”

“The challenge is always to find the right musical language for the subject.”

“You have to create a world, a musical world, that the characters can inhabit.”

“For me, the music is always in service of the drama.”

“My operas are about American history and American identity.”

“The story of The Central Park Five is a story that had to be told through music.”