This series contains material relating to Davis's education at Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts (1948-1954), Harvard College (1954-1958), and the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik (1958-1959). Material relating to his MA in composition at Columbia University is housed under the series "Compositions." This series includes notebooks, diaries, essays, and correspondence produced while Davis was enrolled at these institutions. This series also contains material relating to performances that Davis gave during his high school, college, and post-college schooling, such as audio recordings (on reel-to-reel tape and cassette tapes), programs, and annotated scripts. (Note that some material relating to performances which he gave or attended during his time at high school and college is kept in the scrapbooks house in the series "Programs.") Throughout this series, there are a number of documents relating to Davis's high school friend, actor Earle Edgerton, who he continued to collaborate with beyond his time at Belmont Hill School.
Box 13
Karen Lee Boroughs Music Award, Belmont Hill School, 1953, 1 items
Large trophy, wrapped in bubble wrap. The plaque that encircles the trophy has come loose.
Box 19 Folder 1
Harvard College materials, 1954-1958
Includes graded essays, correspondence, material relating to college performances. Contains some material relating to the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik.
Box 19 Folder 2
Harvard College notebooks: diary and a handwritten study on Richard Strauss, circa 1957
Box 19 Folder 3
Belmont Hill School materials, circa 1948-1954, 1993
Includes material relating to high school performances (such as annotated programs) and a school newspaper with an article by Davis on Der Rosenkavalier. Includes Davis's 1993 obituary for his high school friend, Earle M. Edgerton.
Box 19 Folder 4
Belmont Hill School: annotated scripts, circa 1948-1954
Annotated scripts of Dear Brutus, Montserrat, and Old Crump (all of which Davis performed at Belmont Hill School in the early 1950s).
Box 19 Folder 5
Europe travel diary; appointment book, 1956, 1959
Box 20 Item 88-110
CDs containing recordings of various Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at Belmont Hill School, 1953-1955, 23 compact disks
Works featured include The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe, Princess Ida, The Mikado, Ruddigore, The Grand Duke, His Excellency, Trial by Jury, The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Yeomen of the Guard, The Gondeliers, Utopia Limited. Recordings are spread out over multiple CDs; some CDs contain excerpts from multiple works.
Box 20 Item 111-188
CDs containing recordings of various Shakespeare plays, with Peter Davis and Earle Edgerton playing all roles, circa early 1960s, 78 compact disks
A vast majority of Shakespeare's plays are featured, including: The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, All's Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, Love's Labours Lost, Othello, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet, King John, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry VI, and Richard III. Recordings are spread out over multiple CDs; some CDs contain excerpts from multiple works. The sheaths containing the CDs are labeled with the name of the play(s) and the act(s) and/or scene(s) featured.
Box 20 Item 194
Davis's audition tape for the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik, circa 1958, 1 phonograph records
Two sides: Pieces featured in the audition include: [Johann Sebastian] Bach, Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor (side 1, band 1); [Wolfgang Amadeus] Mozart, Sonata in B flat, K.498a, movement 1 (side 1, band 2); [Ernst von] Dohnányi, Rhapsody in F-sharp minor, opus 11 (side 2, band 1); [Camille] Saint-Saëns, "Amour viens aider ma faiblesse" [from Samson et Dalila] (side 2, band 2); [Giuseppe] Verdi, "O don fatale" [ from Don Carlo] (side 2, band 3).
Box 21 Item 5
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern by W.S. Gilbert, circa 1953-1956, 1 audiocassettes
Side A (1) of item 5 ("Home Tapes 1: Earle [Edgerton] and Peter [Davis], plays, improvisations, parties").
Box 21 Item 5
"Blithe Spirit - operatized", circa 1953-1956, 1 audiocassettes
Side A (314) of item 5 ("Home Tapes 1: Earle [Edgerton] and Peter [Davis], plays, improvisations, parties").
Box 21 Item 5
A party in Earle [Edgerton]'s freshman dormitories with "P," Rich Hill, Tom Flint, Josh Epstein, 2 intruders, spring 1953, 1953, 1 audiocassettes
Side A (419) and Side B (1) of item 5 ("Home Tapes 1: Earle [Edgerton] and Peter [Davis], plays, improvisations, parties").
Box 21 Item 5
A party in Lowell House, 1956, with "P," Robin Kinnell, Charlie Wohl, Theo Weyer, "Swiss guy", 1956, 1 audiocassettes
Side B (253) of item 5 ("Home Tapes 1: Earle [Edgerton] and Peter [Davis], plays, improvisations, parties").
Box 21 Item 5
P[eter?] playing [Ernst von] Dohnányi's Second Rhapsody, circa 1953, circa 1953, 1 audiocassettes
Side B (420) of item 5 ("Home Tapes 1: Earle [Edgerton] and Peter [Davis], plays, improvisations, parties").
Box 21 Item 5
"Ilse and Omi greetings to Stephen on birthday", circa 1953-1956, 1 audiocassettes
Side B (492) of item 5 ("Home Tapes 1: Earle [Edgerton] and Peter [Davis], plays, improvisations, parties").