Judith Davidoff collection of contemporary compositions for viols

Judith Davidoff is an American musician and educator. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, she began her musical career as a cellist. In the 1950s, Davidoff participated in the emerging early music movement and learned how to play the viol, an early bowed instrument from the Baroque era. She taught at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where she had access to many different period instruments, before relocating to New York.

Davidoff is a lifetime member of the Viola da Gamba Society of America (VdGSA). She joined the society in 1964, touring the Soviet Union with New York Pro Musica Antiqua that same year. As part of her dissertation at Sarah Lawrence College, Davidoff compiled the original database of over 900 contemporary viol compositions that can be found on the VdGSA website.

Davidoff founded the New York Consort of Viols (NYCV) in 1972. The NYCV is a string quartet that consists of early bowed string instruments. In addition, Davidoff was also involved in the formation of Early Music America in 1985, and is a board member of the West Side Arts Coalition, founded in 1979.