Ronald Davis
Principal tubist Ronald Davis is Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of South Carolina School of Music. Ron was born and raised in southern California and during his early career was an active free-lance musician in the Los Angeles area. For five seasons he was the principal tuba with the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra and had also performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia Orchestra under Roger Wagner, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. During his college years Ron and three of his friends formed “The Tubadours”, a professional euphonium/tuba quartet that played seasonally at Disneyland and capped its early years by winning television's The Gong Show. Ron was an original cast member (playing banjo!) with the Hoop-De-Doo Revue at Pioneer Hall, Walt Disney World -- Florida. The dinner show premiered in June 1974 and has run continuously since then, entering the Guinness World Records as the longest running musical production of all time when it overtook the previous record of 42 years set by the original off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks.
In 1991 as a guest soloist with the SCPO Ron gave the state’s first performance of the Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He joined the orchestra eight years later. He has also performed with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra, the Augusta Chorale Society, and the Charleston and Charlotte Symphonies. He has been a featured soloist at International Tuba/Euphonium Conferences in Los Angeles, Austin, Minneapolis and Tucson.