Steph Davis & Friends
October 11th @ 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
4:00-5:00 PM – Steph Davis (marimba) with Jenny Oliver (choreographer/dancer)
Through a mesmerizing combination of marimba and dance, Steph Davis and Jenny Oliver showcase multidisciplinary storytelling that honors their combined African American, Cape Verdean, and Native American heritage.
5:00-6:00 PM – Steph Davis (marimba) with DeShaun Gordon King (flutes) and Nicholas Johnson (cello)
The performers merge classical, jazz, and traditional music in a dynamic and colorful combination of flute, cello, and marimba.
Steph Davis is a marimbist and cultural activist. Their music engages traditions, epistemologies, and aesthetics from the African diaspora as means for uncovering truthful historiographies, finding creative self-actualization, and reaching for collective liberation. Hailed by The Washington Post as a “crisp, controlled” performer who “is engaged in deep explorations of acoustic and historical resonance,” Steph is a marimba soloist and chamber musician touring throughout the United States. Integrating Black and Western European classical music, traditional African American spirituals, and Ghanaian gyil songs, their performances explore the cultural and political landscape of the African diaspora. Through their arrangements and commissions, Steph has contributed over 20 works by Black composers to the marimba’s solo and chamber repertoire, in addition to premiering dozens of contemporary works for marimba and vibraphone. Highlights of their ’24-‘25 season includes debuts with The Celebrity Series of Boston and Ashmont Hill Chamber Music, music and dance collaborations with Jenny Oliver (choreographer), and a performance-installation with Dzidzor (spoken word) at the Goethe-Institut Boston. Steph proudly endorses Marimba One instruments and mallets as a Marimba One Premier Artist.
Steph is a teaching artist with Castle of our Skins and Instructor of music theory at the Boston Conservatory. Steph has authored and co-authored several culturally-responsive K-college curricula around Black classical music, published by Castle of our Skins. Steph has presented performances, masterclasses, and lecture-recitals at the University of Central Florida, University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Center of Mallet Percussion Research at Kutztown University, and the Network for Diversity in Concert Percussion.
Steph received their Master of Music in marimba performance from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where they studied with Nancy Zeltsman. They also hold a Bachelor of Music in percussion performance from the Conservatory. They have been awarded residencies at the Goethe-Institut Boston, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and Boston Center for the Arts.
Steph resides on unceded land of the Neponset band of the Massachusett tribe, bordertown Boston, MA.
Jenny Oliver is an artist in the Greater Boston area working as an educator, performer, choreographer and advocate for artistic integrity on faulty at Tufts University. Throughout her 18-year career she has cultivated a trauma informed, culturally responsive kinetic storytelling practice. As a culturally Black person of Cape Verdean and Native American heritage she believes it’s important to address the erasure of Native people and the ongoing systemic injustices towards Black people and is inspired by the ability of movement to catalyze meaningful and effective change in the lives of others.
As a choreographer, her work has been presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, WBUR’s CitySpace, Mark Morris Dance Center, Boston Center for the Arts, Tufts’ Art Galleries, Multicultural Arts Center, Somerville Theater, DanceNOW Boston and the Peabody Essex Museum. In addition to her work as a choreographer she performs with RootsUprising under the direction of Nailah Randall-Bellinger and teaches at the Dance Complex and Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center.
Her collaborative work includes the development of a 2 year creative residency with the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and Boston’s Office of Budget Management using creative storytelling, dance, and fiscal education to engage Boston residents in the city’s budgeting process; supporting Masary Studios to create Data Choreographics as part of the Museum of Science’s Exploring AI: Making the Invisible Visible exhibit; and being a lead artist with the Design Studio for Social Intervention on Public Kitchen | Dance Court prototypes.
In all elements of her work, she strives to create the causes and conditions for liberation, pause, and healing through movement.
Known for his soulful tone and mesmerizing phrasing, Trevor James Alto Flute Artist Díjí Kay
(née DeShaun Gordon-King) has given performances as a soloist and principal flute in Europe, Asia, and throughout the United States. Díjí Kay grew up surrounded by griot traditions and jazz and gospel music. Inspired by the worlds and traditions of his upbringing, Díjí Kay grew passionate about programming that blends them all together to create unique and memorable concert experiences.
As he continued to expand his musical versatility, Díjí Kay also went inward to cultivate his
spiritual practice. It was through these meditations that he understood exactly what higher
purpose he to which he chose to dedicate his art. In the midst of this Awakening, Díjí Kay moved to Cambridge to pursue a Performance Diploma from the Longy School of Music where he worked with Sergio Pallottelli. In addition to refining himself as a flute player, Díjí Kay also studied therapeutic music with the aim to use music as medicine.
During his time in Boston, Díjí Kay has collaborated with Castle of Our Skins, the Celebrity
Series of Boston, Shelter Music Boston, and performed as Reed 1 for the American Repertory
Theatre’s production of Evita. A graduate of the Longy School of Music and Harvard Ed Portal
Pipeline Artist Fellow, Díjí Kay’s work and studies center around synergizing the principles of
therapeutic music, sound healing, and vibrational therapy to curate healing and transformative concert experiences with the firm belief that music is the key to creating paradise in our lifetimes.
Nick Johnson (he/they) is a cellist and organizer that strives to create meaningful art at local levels with collaborations which cross genres. A recipient of the 2023 St. Botolph Club Foundation’s Emerging Artist Award, he regularly performs and records in the New England area as a soloist, chamber partner, and orchestral player with groups including Semiosis Quartet, Sound Icon, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera (check out the 2022 Grammy nominated album “Anthony Davis: X: The Life and Times of Malcom X” and the companion Curriculum Guide developed by Castle of Our Skins). Nick often returns to their native state of Florida to join the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra as principal cellist. Nick received their Bachelor of Music from University of South Florida studying with Scott Kluksdahl, as well as Master of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma from Boston Conservatory at Berklee with Andrew Mark. While at Boston Conservatory he studied and performed with members of the Silk Road Ensemble, was a member of the Honors Chamber Ensemble, was awarded first prize in the 2019 MA-ASTA String Masters Solo Competition performing Henri Dutilleux’s “Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher,” and was a Concerto Competition winner performing Chen Yi’s “Suite for Cello and Chamber Winds.” They have performed at Symphony Hall, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Jordan Hall, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Mechanics Hall, and Carnegie Hall.