MA Top 30 Professional: Geoffrey John Davies

Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief
The Violin Channel

“I felt this calling to just keep going,” said Geoffrey John Davies, founder of The Violin Channel, an online site he launched in 2009. “I look back on all the risks I took, and I think ‘God, that was stupid. No wonder my parents were worried.’ But I always had this feeling it was going to grow into something.”

Starting out as a Facebook page, that “something” is now the sleekly designed Violin Channel, a website that claims more than 2 million viewers a month. It’s a place to  livestream the finals of a violin competition in Europe or read about the “VC Artist of the Month.” Thanks to the channel’s proven track record and relationships with major institutions like Lincoln Center, when the Covid pandemic arrived, it was uniquely poised to help string artists shift to online performance. With financial help from the Alphadyne Foundation, the channel launched Vanguard Concerts, a series of 10 concerts featuring soloists and ensembles, in fall 2020. A second 10-concert season followed last year, and season three is in the works.

“We worked extremely closely with each of the artists,” said Davies, “to really create a résumé piece for them. They were all paid full fees, plus they own 50 percent rights on all the footage. They had a huge amount of input into creating the look, the repertoire, and all the visual elements.”

Performances were filmed at Merkin Hall on New York's Upper West Side.

“These were made with TV quality—seven cameras, interesting angles, well shot,” he said, “and we’re looking into TV broadcast opportunities. These were made specifically to be a digital, online experience; they were not just a recorded concert.”

Davies is proud to have created and recorded a permanent, positive event especially during a very bad time.