College of Arts, Education, & Sciences

VAPA | Music

Dr. Shawn Davern is wearing a blue suit and tie and leaning against a column outside. It is a sunny day.Shawn William Davern is an American composer, arranger, conductor, music educator and multi-instrumentalist originally hailing from Syracuse, NY. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Athletic Bands at the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM). Davern’s duties at ULM include leading the nationally recognized Sound of Today Marching Band, overseeing the Basketball Pep Band, directing the Symphonic Band, supervising graduate assistants for the athletic bands program and recruiting prospective students for the School of Visual and Performing Arts.

Prior to his appointment at ULM, Dr. Davern completed his doctorate of musical arts in conducting at The Ohio State University, where he served as a Graduate Teaching Associate for all facets of one of the nation’s premier collegiate band programs. During his final year at Ohio State, Davern was awarded an Alumni Grant for Graduate Research & Scholarship and the 2026 Constanza DMA Document Award for his dissertation research. The outcome of this scholarly work resulted in a multiday campus residency of famed composer, David Amram, yielding the premiere of a new wind band transcription of Amram’s orchestral composition, THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song of Woody Guthrie by The Ohio State University Wind Symphony. During his time at Ohio State, Davern also served as co-director of the High Street Bones Trombone Ensemble and conductor of The Ohio State University Medical School’s Professional School Orchestra. Dr. Davern received his master’s degree in wind conducting at James Madison University, where he served as the graduate assistant of the university’s band program. He received his bachelor’s degree in music education at Boston University and also studied abroad at the Royal College of Music in London.

Dr. Davern is the co-founder, leader, head writer and lead trombone of The Sages of Future Soul, a remote recording big band that performs contemporary jazz, funk and soul standards. The Sages of Future Soul recordings have featured artists including Alexa Tarantino, David Amram, Adam Unsworth, Justin Kaufl in and Dr. Chloe Swindler. Founded in 2020, the ensemble has gone on to be named a semi-fi nalist in the 2023 Petrichor Music Competition Large Ensemble Division and the group made their international performance debut at the 57th International Horn Symposium in June 2025. Davern made his own international conducting debut at the 55th International Horn Symposium in Montreal, Canada. He has also appeared as a guest conductor with the Heisey Wind Ensemble, The Ohio State University Trombone Choir, Double Reed Choir, Boston University (BU) Trombone Choir, BU Tanglewood Institute Trombone Choir, James Madison University (JMU) Trombone Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Band and the JMU Alumni Jazz Band.

Dr. Davern’s compositions and arrangements have been performed in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland, Canada, Japan and South Korea. He is the editor and transcriber of The Music Method, a publication aimed to develop the artistry of the modern trombonist, authored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Trombone, Toby Oft. Davern is also a member of the Millennium Composers Initiative and his primary composition teacher is Dr. Eric Guinivan. Davern’s composition entitled The Natural Lands: Suite for Tuba Euphonium Quartet was awarded the International Tuba Euphonium Association 2019 R. Winston Morris Award for Excellence for Tuba Euphonium Composition. His composition for wind ensemble An Elegant Sufficiency was named a fi nalist twice in the National Band Association William D. Revelli Composition Competition. The composition was also a national finalist in the American Prize in Composition Band/Wind Ensemble Professional Division and the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music in 2022.

In 2018, Dr. Davern’s arrangement of George Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm was performed live on NBC by the James Madison University Marching Royal Dukes for the 92nd Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. He has also arranged for the Boston Brass, with performances in collaboration with the JMU Marching Royal Dukes and the University of Missouri Marching Mizzou. Davern’s works for trombone choir have been performed by the trombone choirs of Boston University, Eastman School of Music, Columbus State University (GA), The Ohio State University, University of Southern Mississippi and the Ithaca College Trombone Troupe. Davern’s jazz band compositions have been featured by the Boston University Big Band, the Royal College of Music Big Band, the JMU Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Band, Alumni Jazz Band and the Foxborough Jazz Ensemble. His Sonata for Trombone and Piano, subtitled Nostalgia Bostonia, is featured on Dr. Brittany Lasch’s debut album entitled Dark Horse, recorded in collaboration with Thomas Weaver and released in May 2025. Davern’s new work Homage to the Honor-bound, was commissioned by Ian Zook and the International Horn Society, premiered in June 2025 by the U.S. Joint Service Horn Ensemble, under the direction of Shawn Hagen. Davern is published by Cherry Classics Music, Warwick Music and Tyzik Music/Perelandra Music.