June 1, 1942 — January 28, 2025
Nancy Carole (Corkie) Davis, who passed away in Orillia on January 28, 2025, was born in York, Pennsylvania, on June 1, 1942 to Ray and Agnes Musser. She started her musical journey on the piano but discovered the double bass at age 13 and her future became clear. During summers at the Interlochen Music Camp in Michigan and at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, she studied with Oscar Zimmerman who became like a second father to her as her father had passed away when she was a teen. She was also a student of Warren Benfield and Roger Scott and she kept in lifelong contact with all these mentors until they passed away.
Corkie was hired by Seiji Ozawa to join the Toronto Symphony in 1965 and, together with her first husband, Thomas Monohan, soon had a large studio of young bassists who proceeded to get orchestral jobs across Canada and the United States. The annual Double Bass parties Corkie and Tom hosted around Christmas became legendary across the bass world and Corkie’s gastronomic talents were equally famous.
She taught for many years through the Royal Conservatory of Music and had a long tenure as double bass specialist at the Etobicoke School of the Arts as well as maintaining a private studio in her home. Always a kind and caring teacher, she was tough on her students but went the extra mile for anyone who was motivated and willing. She generously invited small groups of students up to her island in Georgian Bay for mini-camps where they played chamber music, practiced their scales on the dock and enjoyed cottage life while being fed both musically and with gourmet meals. She was still in touch with and had visits from many former students until she passed away.
Corkie left the Toronto Symphony in 1979 in order to support the career of her husband, Sir Andrew Davis, and travelled the world with him- sometimes playing as a substitute bassist in the orchestra he was conducting. She especially fondly remembered her time spent in Israel where she played with several friends in the orchestra.
After she and Sir Andrew parted ways in 1988, she pivoted from playing the bass (although continued to teach) and attended the Ontario College of Art & Design. She soon became a wonderful artist with a particular passion for landscapes in Georgian Bay where she maintained an island cottage from 1978 to 2018. She held art shows in Toronto and on Georgian Bay resulting in her oil paintings hanging on many walls both in cottages and in homes across Canada and the US.
When ill health forced her to sell her cottage, she also sold her lakeside home in Etobicoke and relocated to the shores of Lake Couchiching in Orillia where she continued to paint. Her passion for bridge, which started in Etobicoke, continued in Orillia and also online with partners around the world. She was fortunate as her health declined to have a wonderful home that she designed and had built to accommodate her mobility issues where she entertained, although on a reduced scale, almost to the end. Her last dinner party invitation started with “the truffle has been secured” as she made a wonderful meal of pork roast, vegetables, and pasta with white truffle.
Corkie was one of a kind and will be sorely missed by her family and many friends. She is survived by her sister, Marie Jo Musser of York Pennsylvania, her brother Michael McCullough, of Lovettsville, Virginia, her daughter, Kyle McCullough of Apopka Florida, her grandsons Nicholas and Noah McCullough, three three great-grandchildren, Aveleen (age 6), Brynlee (age 4) and Charlie (age 3) as well as nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life will be held on April 1 in Toronto (details to follow on this site). In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation (https://secure-support.heartandstroke.ca/), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (https://my.tso.ca/donate/contribute1), Soldier’s Memorial Hospital (Orillia) (https://osmhfoundation.ca/donate/), or the Interlochen Music Camp (Interlochen, Michigan) ) in memory of Nancy Carole (Corkie) Davis.