Paul Leroy Davis

Paul L. Davis, age 90 of Laurel, Maryland, a prominent Baltimore organist and teacher passed away on July 15, 2026.

Dr. Davis was for 45 years organist and director of music Christ Lutheran Church (Inner Harbor) in Baltimore, retiring in 2011, and a Conservatory organ teacher at the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University (1968-1984). He was also associate professor, serving several years as chairman of the music department at the University of Notre Dame of Maryland (1966-1982) where he taught courses in music theory and literature and directed the college choir. From 1962 to 1965, he served as chapel organist and instructor in the music department t Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.

In 1954 he graduated from the Williamsport, Maryland High School and attended Bridgewater College in Virginia before entering the Peabody Conservatory where he received his Bachelor of Music and Master's degree in 1959. He was then awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for studies in Frankfurt, Germany with the famous blind organist, Helmut Walcha. In 1963 he began his doctoral work at the University of Michigan. Upon being offered a teaching assistantship by the Peabody, he returned there and received his doctorate in 1974. Additional studies were pursued at the Organ Institute in Andover, Massachusetts where his American teacher, Arthur Howes, was director as well as in Spain at the University of Salamanac, the Goethe Institute in Germany and with the German harpsichordist, Maria Jaeger-Jung.

During the 1970-80s he concertized widely in the United States, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Spain. He was well-known in the Fuessen area in Bavaria for his frequent concerts on the eighteenth century organ in the famous Wieskirche and the three organs in the great Benedictine abbey in Ottobeuren. For his many concerts he received highest praise for his technical mastery and stylistic accuracy. He also took advantage of his many summers in the Munich area to do research for his doctoral dissertation which centered upon the Baroque organ and organ music of southern Germany.

As associate professor at Notre Dame of Maryland, he was specially proud of the school's treble-voiced choir known for its performances of original choral music for equal voices from plainsong to contemporary compositions. The choir performed concerts under his director at venues in Baltimore, Washington, DC, New York, London, Paris, Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Mexico.

As a Peabody faculty member he taught organ, courses in organ literature and the history of organ construction and design. He also served as Dean of the Baltimore Chapter of the American Guild of Organists in 1983-84 and was the teacher of many well-known organists and musicians in the Baltimore-Washington area.

In the mid-1980s he retired from teaching and concertizing to devote himself to his work at Christ Lutheran and other professional endeavors. In 2007 he was responsible for the design and installation of the outstanding new Andover organ for Christ Church. The congregation dedicated the instrument to him and the church choir. His recording of the organ received fine reviews by The American Organist and Diapason magazines.

Dr. Davis was the son of George L. Davis and Bertha Martin Davis of Williamsport, Maryland.