Darnella Davidson Recognized with Citizen Recognition Award

On Wednesday evening the  Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council  presented its Citizen Recognition Award to Darnella Davidson, Director of the award winning Los Angeles High School Band and Color Guard for her inspirational leadership encouraging all students to learn to perform at the highest level.

Over the past 28 years, Ms. Davidson’s performing groups have earned twenty-five consecutive Los Angeles Unified School District Band and Drill Team City Championships titles and four Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) medals, among other honors

“Thank you for recognizing our program,” said Davidson. “We teach kids music. we teach kids who have never played music before. Our kids are [SCSBOA] silver medalists – we are the only high school in Los Angeles County  to have won any medals and we have won three!”

In addition to the city championships and SCSBOA medals, Ms. Davidson’s groups have won three Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association 1A Division Field Band Championships, and three Southern California Drum Line Division 3 Championships. Her concert bands have earned “Superior” ratings for performance and sight-reading in SCSBOA and LAUSD Music Festivals.

Davidson, whose program is now 25 years old, is pleased to now teach the children of her students who started the program with her years ago.

“We have fabulous kids that’s what keeps me going,” said Davidson.

Darnella Davidson’s enduring philosophy of education is “to inspire students to believe that they possess unlimited potential,” The proof of her success is in the award-winning performance of her students most of whom come from families with limited resources, and have not grown up with years of private music lessons – they are purely products of our local public schools (such as Wilshire Crest and John Burroughs). Their music can be heard wafting through the nearby neighborhoods most afternoons when the band is practicing.

For the past 28 years, Mrs. Davidson has been the instrumental music teacher at Los Angeles High School. Here, her performing groups have earned twenty-five consecutive Los Angeles Unified School District Band and Drill Team City Championships titles (since 1990), three Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association 1A Division Field Band Championships, four SCSBOA 1A Championship Silver Medals, and three Southern California Drum Line Division 3 Championships. Her concert bands have earned “Superior” ratings for performance and sight-reading in SCSBOA and LAUSD Music Festivals.

In addition, her band and color guard has an extensive professional resume which includes performances in music videos, movies, for the presidents of Argentina, South Korea, and Thailand, corporate promotions for Ralphs Supermarkets, Converse, Diet Coke, major Hollywood events (Hollywood Bowl Fourth of July celebrations, Sesame St. 25th Anniversary, Mark Taper Forum Galas), and magazine print work (Stanbury Uniforms, Paper Magazine). The band has been seen internationally in the Hollywood Christmas Parade, on television shows: Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, Premier Impacto (Spanish language), George Lopez Tonight Show, Style Network’s “How Do I Look?” and performs annually in the Disneyland Main Street Parade. Her bands have performed with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Rosemary Clooney, Charles Nelson Riley, Dame Edna, Ringo Starr, Ken Jeong, Debbie Allen, Vanessa Carlton and Pharrell Wiliams to name a few.

Recognized for her work as an educator, Mrs. Davidson was named “Grand Winner” of the 1994 BRAVO Award (sponsored by the Music Center) and has received commendations from various civic leaders including President Bill Clinton. She is a recipient of the NBC4 Crystal Apple and the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association’s Outstanding Veteran Teacher Award, and the 2014 SCSBOA “GOLD” Award, which is the highest honor the association offers to its members.

Mrs. Davidson is also an assistant director with the LAUSD All City Band (an annual Rose Parade participant), a head judge on the SCSBOA Field Adjudication Steering Committee, and has served as a master teacher for the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mrs. Davidson’s current teaching schedule includes piano, beginning instruments, band, marching dynamics, color guard, drum line and hopes to include modern band in the next school year.