Ollie Watts Davis (1957-) | University of Illinois Archives

Dr. Ollie Watts Davis is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Black Chorus, Suzanne and William Allen Distinguished Professor of Music, Professor of Voice, and Provost's Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Davis was born in Oak Hill, West Virginia and was raised in Mount Hope. Davis began her studies as an engineering major at the West Virginia Institute of Technology, but after joining the school's concert and gospel choirs, she changed her major to vocal performance. While completing her first masters degree in secondary education at West Virginia University in 1979, she met and performed alongside operatic bass-baritone William Warfield, who suggested she enroll in the graduate music program at the University of Illinois. She eventually earned both her MM (1982) and DMA (1988) degrees at the University of Illinois.

In 1981, she became the assistant director of the University of Illinois' Black Chorus, a student performing ensemble that began in 1968. She assisted Andre Thomas with the group, until he graduated in 1983, at which point she became the director of the ensemble. After being selected as a Krannert Center debut artist in 1987, she was hired by the University of Illinois's School of Music. She would serve the vocal division for more than forty years.

Davis gave her Carnegie Hall debut as a soprano in 1990 and soon after appeared in concerts with the San Francisco, Minnesota, Houston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Dallas Symphony Orchestras. She also performed in opera halls in St. Louis, Des Moines, Springfield and San Luis. In 2006 she founded StudiO: The Ollie Watts Davis Institute for Vocal Arts at the Allerton Conference Center in Monticello (IL). Two years later she was named a University Scholar. She served as chair of the vocal division from 2006 to 2009. She also is the founder of the biennial Black Sacred Music Symposium, which is held at the University of Illinois.

"Ingenious: A Light on the Prairie" University of Illinois Alumni Association (March 21, 2023): https://uiaa.org/2023/03/21/ingenious-a-light-on-the-prairie/

Dr. Ollie Watts Davis Biography, https://olliewattsdavis.com/biography/