Elizabeth
Skola Davis
[email protected]

Original works & arrangements

Composition

My pieces are grouped by who plays them, from full orchestra and British brass band to woodwind quintet, choir, carillon and Japanese harp. Where a score is published, the link takes you straight to it. To ask about any other piece, email me.

Elizabeth Skola Davis conducting the debut performance of Laudatio Amadeus
Conducting the debut performance of Laudatio Amadeus, 16 June 2024. Watch the full performance

Listen first

Recordings for orchestra, choir and cello ensemble.

SoundCloudIn Memory

In Memory

Choir and piano. Text: "In Memory of Anyone Unknown to Me" by Elizabeth Jennings, by permission of the Elizabeth Jennings Estate.

Listen on SoundCloud

Flourish!

For orchestra. Written for the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra in Edgewater, Maryland.

Watch on YouTube

Ever Forward

Overture for orchestra. The Trinity Chamber Orchestra premiered it on 13 November 2022.

Watch on YouTube

Calypso Simpatico

For cello quintet with optional percussion. Written for my first Global Cello SIDE Project.

Watch on YouTube

Favorite recordings

If I had to pick, these are what I'd share first.

Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, part 2

1990 · 3:58

Performed by Gail Carpenter, clarinet; Elizabeth Skola, cello; and Louis Wendt, piano.

Wolf Skin

2014 · 4:43

Text by Mary McMyne. The poem first appeared in The Los Angeles Review (Red Hen Press, 2013) and has been reprinted in the collection Wolf Skin (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), by Mary McMyne. Visit the poet online at marymcmyne.com.

In Memory

2015 · 6:47

Text: "In Memory of Anyone Unknown to Me" by Elizabeth Jennings, by permission of the Elizabeth Jennings Estate.

Epiphany Insurrection

2021 · 5:14

Works

Published scores link straight to the store.

Orchestra

Minuet in G Major

2010

string orchestra

Notes

A teaching piece with every part in first position.

Flourish!

2013

2,2,2,2-4,2,3,1-timp, perc, strings

Notes & recordings

Written for the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra in Edgewater, Maryland.

First performed 6 October 2013

Madame Grand Doigts (Madame Longfingers)

2014

chamber orchestra: 1,1,1,1-1,1,1,1-timp, perc, strings

Notes & recordings

First performed 7 September 2014

Ever Forward

2022

2,2,2,2-2,2,0,0-timp, 1 perc, strings

Notes & recordings

Overture. The Trinity Chamber Orchestra gave the first performance on 13 November 2022.

Voice or soloists with orchestra

Oriana's Lament

1989

soprano with 2,2,2,2-2,2,2,1-timp, perc, harp, strings; also soprano and piano

Notes & recordings

Third prize, 1989 ASCAP Victor Herbert Young Composers competition, Voice with Orchestra. Text adapted by the composer from "A Knight Errant and his Dowdy Deeds: The Story of Amadis of Gaul" (J. B. Lippincott, 1911).

Cult Costa?

1992

saxophone quartet (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone) with 2,2,2,2-2,2,0,0-timp, perc, strings

Brass band and brass

The Stag of Rock Forest

2024

British brass band: soprano, solo, repiano, 2nd and 3rd cornets, flugelhorn, solo, 1st and 2nd horns, 2 baritones, 2 trombones and bass trombone, euphonium, E-flat and B-flat basses, timpani, percussion

Resplendence

2025

trumpet choir (sextet)

Chamber music

Age Archaic

1987

Sprechstimme voice, timpani, 2 percussion

Recordings

Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

1990

clarinet, cello, piano

Notes & recordings

Honorable mention, 1991 ASCAP Victor Herbert Young Composers competition, Small Ensemble. Featured at the Second Festival of Women Composers, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 1991.

Performed by Gail Carpenter, clarinet; Elizabeth Skola, cello; and Louis Wendt, piano.

Galop

2016

string quartet

Notes & recordings

Also the third movement of String Quartet No. 1.

First performed 27 February 2016

Please All, Please None

2017

woodwind quintet

Notes & recordings

First performed by the Daraja Ensemble on 13 May 2017.

Cello

Three Short Studies

1988, rev. 1989

solo cello. I. Espressiv, II. Allegro agitato, III. Lento

Recordings

Calypso Simpatico

2021

cello quintet with optional percussion

Notes & recordings

Written for the first Global Cello SIDE Project.

First performed 2 July 2021

Choir and voice

Paths

1990

chamber opera: 2 tenors, baritone, bass with flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello

Notes

Text by David Eadington.

Wolf Skin

2014

tenor or baritone, double bass, piano; also tenor and piano

Notes & recordings

First performed in November 2016 at a Baltimore Composers Forum concert.

Text by Mary McMyne. The poem first appeared in The Los Angeles Review (Red Hen Press, 2013) and has been reprinted in the collection Wolf Skin (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), by Mary McMyne. Visit the poet online at marymcmyne.com.

Epiphany Insurrection

2021

mezzo-soprano or soprano, piano

Notes & recordings

"So many were shocked at the unfathomable events of January 6 in Washington DC. This is my reaction."

First performed 26 March 2021

Text by the composer.

Solo and other

...reduced to seven minutes for two speakers

1991

electronics with narration

Notes & recordings

A tribute to John Cage's Forty-Nine Minutes for One Speaker.

The Spindle Whorl

2014

carillon

Notes

First performed 10 July 2016

Do Sol Sol Fugue

2021

piano

Recordings

Triskele

2022

solo flute, three movements: Cluricaun, Glaistig, Pooka

Cherry Blossoms on the Potomac

2023

taishogoto (Japanese Nagoya harp)

Notes & recordings

First performed 30 September 2023

Arrangements

My arrangements of other people's music, most of them for string groups. They're licensed through ArrangeMe, a Hal Leonard Company, so they're sold on Sheet Music Plus.

Rather Be

Clean Bandit

flute, soprano and tenor saxophones, percussion, strings

Sheet Music Plus

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Pola and Wyle

string trio, optional bass

Sheet Music Plus

Prelude in B minor, Op. 28 No. 6

Frédéric Chopin

solo viola or cello with string orchestra

Sheet Music Plus

Viennese Sonatina in C, first movement

W. A. Mozart

string orchestra

Sheet Music Plus

Kojo no Tsuki (Moon over the Ruined Castle)

Rentaro Taki

string orchestra

Sheet Music Plus