Mike Davis

Mike Davis supported Marching Bands of America (MBA) by bringing the organization to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater starting in 1976. He then joined the MBA advisory board in 1979 and continued to support by hosting the first regional championship and championing the organization throughout his career. 

Davis retired as the band and orchestra director for the Walt Disney World Resort in 2001. During his tenure with Walt Disney World, he conducted the Walt Disney World Band and Orchestra in the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT Center for the Candlelight Procession. He also appeared on national TV specials as the personality “Major Mike”, as well as conducted the music for the inauguration of three Presidents of the United States. 

Davis’s career has taken him to Paris and Tokyo with Disney, but prior to that he taught at James Madison University, the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, as well as teaching high school, middle school, and elementary in Illinois and Wisconsin. 

After retiring from the Walt Disney Company, Mike served as the Executive Director of a professional non-profit ensemble, the St. Johns River City Band in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2004, Michael conducted the Jacksonville Youth Symphony Orchestra along with the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus and 2,300 students for Jacksonville, Florida in the national PBS special, “The Worlds Largest Concert” that aired to over ten million viewers. In the same year, Davis received the Lowell Manson Fellow Award from the National Association of Music Education for significant contributions to music education in America.