Ivan Davis

Ivan Roy Davis, Jr. (born February 4, 1932 in Electra, Texas), is an American classical pianist.

Early life

Davis received his Bachelor of Music in 1952 from University of North Texas College of Music, and an Artist's Diploma, as a Fulbright Scholar, from the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome. He won second prize in the 1956 and 1957 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition and first prize in the 1958 St. Cecilia Piano Competition. In April 1960, Davis won the Franz Liszt Competition at Town Hall, New York City. Davis studied under Silvio Scionti, Carlo Zecchi and Vladimir Horowitz.

Performance and recording career

He debuted at New York City's Town Hall in 1959. Davis made his international debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. In 1960, he signed with CBS Records and began a 60 concert cross-country tour. He has toured the world with several major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Spanish National Orchestra. He has performed under such world-famous conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy and Lorin Maazel. He is listed in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and has received the Handel Medallion from New York City for contributions to the city's cultural life. He recorded for London Records in the 1970s. Since 1966, Davis has been a professor of music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.

Ivan Davis (politician)

Ivan Davis (born 16 April 1937) is a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

Born in Lisburn, Davis was elected to Lisburn Borough Council in 1973, representing the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). He was also elected to represent South Antrim at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1982.

In 1987, Davis resigned from the DUP and instead joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Under this new party label, he served as Mayor of Lisburn from 1991 - 93. He was also elected for Lagan Valley at the Northern Ireland Forum election in 1996 (with Jeffrey Donaldson and David Campbell), and narrowly held this seat at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998. During the course of the Assembly he became UUP chief whip.

Lagan Valley UUP controversially did not select Davis as a candidate for the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003, so he resigned and stood instead as an independent Unionist. He received 2,223 first-preference votes, but this did not prove sufficient to see him elected despite polling more first preferences than one successful candidate.