Ian Davidson named Regents' Professor by TSUS board

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
September 11, 2014

Ian Davidson, professor of music at Texas State University, has been named a Regents’ Professor by The Texas State University System Board of Regents.

The designation honors exceptional and outstanding members of the System’s professoriate who have achieved excellence in teaching, research and publication, and community service, while demonstrating an unwavering dedication to their students, their university and their community.

"Ian Davidson has a stellar reputation as a music professor and as a chamber musician and soloist. As a member of Texas State’s faculty, he has set a high bar for faculty excellence at the university," Texas State President Denise M. Trauth said. "We are fortunate to have a professor of Ian’s caliber setting an outstanding example for other faculty members and for students at Texas State."

It is a lifetime designation bestowed by the Board of Regents upon tenured faculty who have been acknowledged as exceptional by their peers and students and recommended by The TSUS Foundation Board of Directors, the chancellor and their university president.

"I was speechless when the president called, and that doesn't happen very often for me," Davidson said. "The real honor is teaching at Texas State."

Davidson joined the Texas State music faculty in 1991 from Southwestern University. Since then, he has been recognized repeatedly for outstanding contributions in teaching, service and scholarly/creative activity. Davidson has received 12 Presidential Award nominations, been twice named "Favorite Professor" by the Alpha Chi Honor Society, was the first performer invited to present the Dean’s Seminar, the first faculty member from the School of Music elected to the Texas State Faculty Senate and in 2003 was nominated by the Austin Critics Round Table as "Best Instrumental Soloist" for his work with the Chamber Soloists of Austin, performing the complete Brandenburg Concertos of J.S. Bach. A two-time college nominee, Davidson was awarded the Presidential Award for Outstanding Scholarly/Creative Activities in 1999.

Davidson has appeared as soloist and chamber musician on five continents. His many international concerts have taken him to Italy, England, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Scotland, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, China, Hungary, Czech Republic and the Republic of South Africa.

International recitals and residencies include the Moscow Conservatory of Music, Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Silesia, Trinity College of Music in London, the Institute of Culture in St. Petersburg, the University of Piaui in Brazil, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa and the State Conservatory of Music in Bratislava.

He is a founding member of the Wild Basin Winds, an Austin-based national woodwind quintet that has performed in such locations as the Kennedy Center and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and has commissioned, recorded and premiered dozens of new works.

Davidson earned his B.M. in performance from DePauw University in 1980 and his M.M. and DMA, also in performance, from the University of Texas in 1983 and 1997.

The Texas State University System Board of Regents is the governing body for Texas’ oldest university system, which comprises seven institutions in addition to Texas State University: Lamar University; Sam Houston State University; Sul Ross State University; Sul Ross State University Rio Grande College; Lamar Institute of Technology; Lamar State College-Orange; and Lamar State College-Port Arthur.