Steven D. Davis is director of bands and wind ensembles, associate professor of conducting, Conservatory large ensembles chair, and conductor of the Conservatory Wind Symphony at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. He coordinates the graduate program in wind ensemble conducting and guides all aspects of the UMKC band program. Davis is the founding director of the UMKC Wind Band Teaching Symposium, one of the largest summer conducting symposiums of its type in the country. He is conductor of the Youth Symphony of Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, and regularly conducts the Kansas City Symphony Brass. Davis has served as a guest conductor at the Midwest Clinic, MENC National Convention, Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, CBDNA National Convention, the Festival of New American Music, alongside David Robertson of the St. Louis Symphony, and at numerous state music conferences as well as the most significant conservatories in Bangkok and Chang Mai, Thailand; Lisbon, Portugal; and Beijing, China.

Fervently committed to new repertoire, Davis has been praised by several notable composers including Leslie Bassett, Robert Beaser, Michael Colgrass, John Corigliano, Michael Daugherty, Osvaldo Golijov, Stephen Hartke, David Lang, Zhou Long, James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Steven Stucky, Frank Ticheli, and Chen Yi.

Davis was recently elected to the American Bandmasters Association and will serve the College Band Directors National Association as the Southwest Division president, 2012–14. He has been awarded honorary lifetime memberships in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association and the Phi Mu Alpha and Tau Beta Sigma fraternities. Davis is published with Carl Fischer.