Pianist Anthony Davis Awarded Pulitzer Prize For ‘The Central Park Five’ Opera

By DownBeat I May. 8, 2020

On Monday, pianist Anthony Davis won a Pulitzer Prize for his opera, *The Central Park Five*.
(Photo: YouTube)

Anthony Davis, a frequent Wadada Leo Smith collaborator, on Monday was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in the musical composition category for his opera, The Central Park Five.

The pianist, who currently teaches at the University of California, San Diego, premiered the work at the Long Beach Opera in California on June 15, 2019. The piece follows the travails of five New York teenagers who are accused in the 1989 murder of a jogger in the city’s park. Each of the five—who also were the focus of a 2019 Netflix series, When They See Us, which was directed by Ava DuVernay and scored by jazz pianist Kris Bowers—were convicted and later exonerated.

The Pulitzers, which this year included Jon Batiste as a judge in Davis’ category, said the composer’s work “skillfully transforms a notorious example of contemporary injustice into something empathetic and hopeful.”

Notably, in 2016, jazz composer Henry Threadgill won the category for his In For A Penny, In For A Pound (Pi) recording.

Davis—whose other work includes albums released on the India Navigation and MPS imprints, and X, The Life And Times Of Malcolm X, An Opera In Three Acts—also received $15,000 as a part of the win. DB