Kate Davis

Early life

Davis started learning music on the violin. She moved to the Pacific Northwest in middle school and began to study the double bass. She played violin and bass in the Portland Youth Philharmonic. She was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2009 through the YoungArts national arts scholarship program while at West Linn High School in West Linn, Oregon.

Music career

Davis enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music in 2009, concentrating on jazz and classic American songs. Shortly after, she began writing her own music. By 2012, she was recognized by ASCAP with the Robert Alan Award for new songwriters. She has said that learning the double bass was difficult, but after learning songs from the Great American Songbook, she was able to translate that knowledge to create her own style. In school she collaborated with guitarist Gabe Schnider and drummer Conor Szymanski. They have recorded together, and their songs can heard on Michael Feinstein's NPR show Song Travels.

In 2012, Davis gave a talk and performed music at a TEDx conference in Portland, Oregon.

Davis was recognized by MTV as one of the "Fifteen Fresh Females to Rule Pop" in 2014.

She opened for Josh Groban in 2014 at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia.

In September 2014, Davis sang a cover version of "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor while playing double bass for Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox video channel; Bradlee played piano and Dave Tedeschi played drums on their 1940s jazz-style interpretation, called "All About That (Upright) Bass". After three months on YouTube their version had received eight million hits.

In December 2014, Davis appeared on PBS NewsHour to perform and to talk about her career.

She appeared on the PBS special American Voices with Renée Fleming in January 2015. Davis stepped in at the last minute for Grammy-winner Kurt Elling when he became ill with laryngitis and couldn't perform.

Discography