biography

Kerri Davis, a native of Naples, Florida has been playing the clarinet for fifteen years. She graduated from Stetson University in Deland, Florida with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. While attending Stetson she had performance opportunities as co-principal clarinet, Eb clarinet, and bass clarinet within the University Symphonic Band as well as the Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed in the Clarinet Choir and various chamber ensembles to include a clarinet quartet, woodwind trio, and woodwind quintet. For her Junior Recital, she was selected to perform during Stetson Showcase. Kerri has also had the pleasure of performing with the Florida All-State Intercollegiate Band in January 2018. 

Davis started her musical career focusing on double bass performance in middle and high school. In the Summer of 2015, she attended the Interlochen Orchestral Program to study double bass for six weeks. After her time at Interlochen, she decided to shift her attention from the double bass to the clarinet. Kerri often draws from her background as a double bassist and string player to aid her in her understanding of phrasing and musicality with the clarinet, and especially the bass clarinet. 

During her senior year at Stetson, Davis took three auditions for admission to a graduate program to further her studies in clarinet performance. She was accepted to all three programs and awarded a Graduate Teaching Assistantship to one of the schools. Although she was honored to have been allowed to further her music performance education, she decided to postpone her graduate studies to teach. 

Kerri enjoys exploring new music and lesser-known and performed works for the clarinet. For instance, two of the works that she performed on her Senior Recital were David Baker’s Clarinet Sonata, an African American Jazz composer of the 20th and 21st century, and Joan Tower's, Wings - a solo clarinet work written in 1981. For her Junior recital, Davis performed Theresa Martin’s Gryphon, and Carlos Guastavino’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano.

Alongside her performance interests and opportunities, Davis has an interest in musical instrument repair. Having worked in a music repair shop for a year, doing side-work for fellow clarinetists, and helping her partner repair and sell brass instruments, Davis has a solid foundational knowledge of musical instrument repair. She hopes to further her knowledge of repair at a technical school, or through an apprenticeship. Kerri also has a newfound interest in audio and visual recording and editing through her experience with Logic Pro X and recording during the pandemic. 

As a teacher, Ms. Davis has an active private clarinet and saxophone studio and held a high school band director position in Miami, Florida while she taught beginning band, marching band, and concert band. Before relocating from South Florida to the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio area in the Summer of 2023, she enjoyed performing with colleagues, and student clarinetists in Les Art Nouveau Chalumeaux, the South Florida Clarinet Choir.

The teachers who have inspired and influenced her life include her parents, Matthew Medlock, Catherine Gatewood, Paul Votapek, Jessica Speak, and Lynn Musco. Davis was awarded the Duckwitz Talent Scholarship, and the Lynn Musco Endowed Clarinet Scholarship while attending Stetson University. In the Spring semester of 2020, she was selected as a member of the Stetson University School of Music Student Advisory Council and served as a member until she graduated in May of 2021.