About the Music

The composer shares this note about her piece Souvenir de Chanson for bass clarinet & piano (2025):

This piece is based on an improvisation by my father, Michael Davenport, that dates from the early 1980s, placing it in my earliest musical memories. The etheral creation may have been lost had my mother not decided it was worth writing down that day. Atop the single page of notes with a loose rhythmic notation, she gave the music the simple title Song.

My father was my first teacher, my inspiration for becoming a musician and teacher myself, and for many years my partner in performing, recording, and publishing music for bass clarinet. After his passing in 2019, as I've continued to expand into my own voice as an artist, this Song has stuck with me as a poignant reminder of the many ways he shaped me as a musician - and as a musical idea worthy of further exploration.

In the spring of 2025, as I prepared for the honor and pleasure of recording an album with bass clarinetist Mélanie Bourassa which would feature works by women composers, I was inspired to create this work for inclusion on the album. Mélanie never knew my father, but the first time I heard her play, I was immediately reminded of his voice on the instrument. I envisioned this piece as both a tribute to him and our years of music-making, as well as a connection between generations of performers of this beautiful instrument. I am profoundly thankful to Mélanie for her collaboration, and dedicate the work to her with a title far more beautiful in French than English.

Two scores provided, one for each performer (concert pitch and transposed): 7 pages. Extended-range instrument NOT required.

PDF Edition

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About the Composer

Kim Davenport is a piano soloist and collaborative artist whose work is driven by a passion for sharing the works of underrepresented composers. Her primary focus over the past several years has been to perform and record solo and chamber works of Black composers. This work has resulted in multiple solo recitals, her 2022 album featuring Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s complete Twenty-Four Negro Melodies, Op.59, and her forthcoming 2025 studio albums with British bass clarinetist Sarah Watts and Canadian bass clarinetist Mélanie Bourassa.

In 2024, Kim had the honor of premiering the Piano Concerto, Op.14 by Kevin Oldham, a brilliant pianist/composer whose life was cut tragically short by AIDS in 1993, in a new transcription for piano and concert band with the Tacoma Concert Band, led by conductor Gerard Morris.

Kim is active in the vibrant musical community of Tacoma, Washington, where she maintains a private piano studio, teaches at both the University of Washington Tacoma and the University of Puget Sound, and performs regularly around the city. She is especially interested in drawing connections between her life as a performer and her academic research and writing interests. She is a published scholar of local history, with a focus on Tacoma’s musical past. Her textbook for use in non-major music classes, “Learning to Listen,” was published in 2023.

She was active for nearly 20 years in the critically acclaimed Duo Alea, the bass clarinet/piano duo she formed with her father, Michael Davenport. The Duo’s performances and recordings brought local and world premieres of several important works for bass clarinet & piano. The Duo were also active in music publishing, forming the independent firm Alea Publishing & Recording in 1997 to produce their own recordings and establish a growing catalog of sheet music for the bass clarinet. In 2020, following her father’s passing, Kim reinvigorated the Alea catalog with a focus on underrepresented composers, and established the Dolphy Prize for new works for bass clarinet by black composers.

Kim holds undergraduate degrees in music and piano performance from the University of Washington, and a Master of Music in piano performance from Northwestern University.