He joined select students performing with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. The family moved back to Ohio, where Davis was in his dad’s high school choir.Īt Michigan Davis sang in the glee club and played drums in the marching band. He was invited to sing with the Vienna Boys Choir. “I sang in a boys choir when I was about 10-years old in Oregon after our family moved there.” It may surprise some this instrumental icon was a singer through his early 20s. “I had all of that and then I went to the University of Michigan’s famous music school.”įor his primary instrument, Davis chose bassoon though he’s best known as a percussionist. In addition to being immersed in music and feeling compelled to create it, he said, “I had some of the best teachers you could ever have.” His accomplished father taught music theory-music history and was Chip’s main teacher through high school. At 6 he composed a four-part chorale ode to his pet dog, Stormy, who died. He conducted in front of the family console radio. The precocious only child started on piano at 4 with his grandmother as his first teacher. In fact, my mother said when I was 6-months old I could hum the melody to ‘Silent Night,’ which is pretty crazy at that age. Music was flowing in my veins from the time I was born. Third generation both sides of my family. Reflecting on how much of his own musical predisposition is inherited and how much is a result of environment and exposure, he said, “I think there’s probably a combination of both. Davis intended following suit as a teacher and classical performer. His father taught music, led choirs and built instruments. plus an aunt and uncle, studied at the University of Michigan’s prestigious music school. His country doctor grandfather loved the (John Philip) Sousa marches and the lead trombonist in the Sousa band taught Chip’s mother in high school. His family’s connections to American popular music run deep. His mother Betty played trombone in the NBC Symphony and in Phil Spitalny’s All Girl Orchestra. His father Louis played saxophone in the Glenn Miller touring band. His parents made their own break from classical to commercial. It wasn’t the first time someone in his musical family made a detour. He went from the world of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart to the great American Songbook to a rock opera to advertising jingles to winning country music writer of the year to hitting upon his synthesized Steamroller sound of baroque meets easy listening. But then a funny thing happened on the way to his dream. Before that though he was hard on the path of becoming a symphony orchestra player. This third-generation musician from small town Ohio is credited with helping give birth to the New Age genre for his signature fusion of classical and rock. He creates and oversees a branded line of non-music products, including food items that range from a spay-on meat baste to a cinnamon hot chocolate mix. The concerts are held in an outdoor bandshell he calls “absolutely beautiful.” In December he’ll fly to Orlando to conduct a 60-piece orchestra at Universal Studios playing the music from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. His private Hawker 900 XP jet gets him wherever he needs to go quickly and in comfort. His touring musicians travel via luxury buses, but the grueling every night schedule is too strenuous for him. The tours nearly rival the Nebraska Theatre Caravan’s tours of A Christmas Carol.ĭue to a bum arm from neck surgery, Davis no longer tours, though he still makes surprise appearances. He sponsors two national touring bands performing Steamroller’s popular Christmas catalogue. It covers five acres and four buildings, three of which are interconnected. But where Williams is a solo act, Davis fronts a multi-dimensional machine under the Mannheim Steamroller name.ĭavis maintains a large production-recording-distribution complex in North Omaha. In terms of fame and riches, only one other Nebraska musician can rival Davis – singer-composer Paul Williams, a Grammy and Oscar-winner. and the world.Īn acknowledged entrepreneurial and branding whiz, he’s leveraged his music’s appeal to partner with Walt Disney Company, NBC, Universal Studios, NASA and the National Parks System. Millions more have come from performing multimedia concert dates across the U.S. The Omaha transplant has built an international following with his music, which has earned some half a billion dollars in retail sales over four decades. Music is a birthright for Grammy Award-winning American Gramophone and Mannheim Steamroller founder Chip Davis. Appearing in the December 2018 issue of New Horizons
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