About — Scott Evan Davis

Biography

Scott Evan Davis is a multi-award-winning Composer/Lyricist as well as Educator and Author based in NYC. After working as an actor, he began composing in 2010. Davis has since gained international recognition in the worlds of musical theatre and cabaret. Scott has performed concerts of his music at Birdland Jazz Club in NYC, The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as London, Dublin, Australia, and all around the U.S. The Huffington Post review of his debut album, Cautiously Optimistic, listed Scott among five "must see and must know" emerging writers.

His musical, Powerful Day, which was written with and for autistic children at PS94 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, won Musical Theatre International's prestigious Courage in Theatre Award. Scott's work with the students of PS94 was featured in a segment on CBS News, as well as a feature length documentary called Spectrum of Hope, produced by Musical Theatre International. Scott's most known song, "If the World Only Knew," is sung globally for its social message. He was named a NY1 News "New Yorker of the Week" for his dedicated work with the neurodiverse community. He also sits on the advisory board, and musically directs for an organization called EPIC PLAYERS, which is an all inclusive neuro-diverse professional theatre company in NYC.

His musical, INDIGO, which celebrated its acclaimed UK premiere, and his debut children's book, Queen Bea, continue Scott's creative work in highlighting our individual qualities.

Scott also shares his humor and creativity with a global audience on social media @scottevandavis.

Backstory

I never thought I would be a songwriter. It wasn't planned... the profession chose me.

It’s a really long story, but in a nutshell, my teacher/mentor in college (I was pursuing performing) asked me to come and live with him, when he found out he had terminal cancer, and was given a year to live. I was 19. He put me in his will for 100,000 dollars, and hoped I would stay with him for the last year of his life.

After about 8 months, I felt very confined by the situation and left. We had a huge fight and never spoke again. Years later, after quitting theatre and getting a job in mutual funds in Boston, I wrote him a letter, asking for forgiveness for leaving him alone to take care of himself. I never heard back because he had passed away.

That inspired me to quit my job and pursue performing again.

It brought me back to NYC and I ended up in an Off-Broadway play called Joy. It was during the run of that show, that I had a dream. In that dream, Brian, my teacher, was healthy and smiling and sitting on a park bench. I sat next to him, and we hugged, and I apologized. All he did was hug me tighter and hum. He kept humming the same phrase of music.

After awhile, the hug got so tight, that I couldn’t breath and I woke up.

The next day, I couldn’t get that melody out of my head, and even though I had never written a song before, I sat down at the piano (because I've always played) and tried to play the melody. That became my first song called "Cautiously Optimistic."

Then, it became my first album. That was 2010... and I have been a writer ever since!