Helga Davis is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist who works as an actress, singer, writer and composer, as well as a radio and podcast host.[1]
Helga Davis performed as a principal actor in the 25th-anniversary international revival of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach. The New York Times described Davis' performance as "Compelling."[2] Robert Wilson described Davis as "a united whole, with spellbinding inner power and strength."[3] David Keenan, of The Wire magazine, described Davis as "a powerful vocalist with an almost operatic range and all the bruised sensuality of Jeanne Lee."[4]
Davis' music career has included a stint in the rock band Women in Love, in the 1990s.[5] More recently, Davis has starred in operas and theater pieces internationally, including Robert Wilson's The Temptation of St. Anthony, libretto and score by Bernice Johnson Reagon; her and Toshi Reagon's Octavia E. Butler's Parable Of The Sower, Milton by Katie Pearl and Lisa Damour; The Blue Planet, a multimedia theater piece, by Peter Greenaway and Saskia Boddeke; and Soho Rep's Jomama Jones, Radiate, which was included in The New Yorker theatre critic Hilton Als’s top ten list.[3] Among the many works that have been written for Davis are Faust's Box, written and directed by Italian contemporary music composer Andrea Liberovici; Oceanic Verses by Paola Prestini, with libretto by Donna DiNovelli; and Elsewhere by Missy Mazzoli and Maya Beiser.[6]
Davis hosts the "Helga" podcast, live events for New Sounds and WQXR-FM's Q2 Music.[3]
Davis is the recipient of the BRIC Fireworks grant and the ASCAP Multimedia Award, as well as the 2019 Greenfield Prize.[1] Davis was appointed the Visiting Curator for the Performing Arts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in Boston, for 2018-2021.[7]
Davis was born and raised in Harlem, in New York City.[8] She performed in high school theater productions, studied piano and sang in a church choir.[5]