Randall Davidson joined MacPhail’s Composition faculty in 2017, after many years of working in the summer camp program. His works have enjoyed hundreds of performances throughout the U.S. and Europe, and have attracted the attention of critics, performers and audiences alike for their dramatic and accessible musical language.
Collaborations with Garrison Keillor produced two large-scale works: The Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra (performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and commercially recorded) and the humorous oratorio, The History of Evil: Bible Families (receiving productions in Minnesota, Colorado and Ohio.) Randall’s 20-year association with Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence has resulted in dozens of works for chorus and orchestra.
A compelling educator, Randall translates his passion for music through lectures, seminars, workshops, panel discussions and pre-concert talks. He emcees the weekly Courtroom Concert at the Schubert Club of Minnesota to sold-out audiences. He has worked with St. Paul’s Eastside Arts Council and the Minnesota Boychoir since 1997.
Special recognition has come to Randall through awards, residencies and dozens of commissions. An opera commissioned by NIKE International for a commercial televised throughout Europe, North and South America and Asia earned him a Gold Lion at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
He studied with Dominick Argento, Eric Stokes, Susan McClary and Paul Fetler at the University of Minnesota School of Music, and Alf Houkom at Cornell College in Iowa.