Lawrence Davis, orchestra B.M., Hartt School of Music "I love to see a young performer make a discovery about music, and feel a sense of accomplishment." Lawrence Davis began his lifelong love of music in the seventh grade when he heard the New Castle (Pennsylvania) High School Concert Choir sing a concert at his junior high school. “I can tell you every piece on the program. It was a completely overwhelming experience. I knew immediately I wanted to make music.” he remembers. Shortly thereafter, his parents bought him a huge upright piano for $20 and he began studying piano. Lawrence studied music at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then at Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, where he graduated with high honors. He lived in Connecticut for seventeen years after graduation, teaching music on the high school and college level, conducting community orchestras and choruses, and using his conducting experience to help him become an arts administrator. “The one consistent thing about my working life has been that I have continued to make music with young people. I love to see a young performer make a discovery about music, and feel a sense of accomplishment,” he says. “Music has been a vehicle to all education for me. The processes I use to learn an orchestral score are exactly the same ones I use when solving any complex problem.” Lawrence has been at Bloomingdale for 14 years and has seen the ensemble program grow exponentially in that time. “The latest incarnation of the Bloomingdale Chamber Orchestra began as the Sinfonietta four years ago. The students kept getting better and better and we have been able to do standard symphonic literature, which has been exciting for all of us.” “The members of the orchestra and I have a good working relationship. I was taught that the conductor is first among equals. It is really chamber music, where every member is important. It is our job to inspire each other to make music and do our best work.”