CYCLE 3: FIRE & LIGHTC4 is thrilled to be partnering with the West Village Chorale, led by C4 alum Colin Britt, for an exciting joint concert featuring performances by both choirs individually, as well as works for double choir. The program features works by James Bassi, Hayes Biggs, Abbie Betinis, Tarik O'Regan, Jake Runestad, Trevor Weston, and more, as well as premieres of works for double choir by C4 member Martha Sullivan and Colin Britt.
Sunday, June 2 at 5:00pm
Judson Memorial Church 55 Washington Square South General Admission (Online): $25
Student (Online): $10 General Admission (At the door, if available): $30 Student (At the door, if available): $15 10 $4 "rush" tickets available at the door (cash only), only if concert is not sold out |
photo by Cheryl Aden
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Fire & Light Program Information
Read program notes, song texts, and composer bios in advance (or during!) the Fire & Light concert!
COMPOSER BIOS
Arianne Abela
ARIANNE ABELA (founder of Justice Choir-Detroit) is currently on conducting faculty at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, and is founder and director of the Detroit Women's Chorus, an ensemble dedicated to social-justice and community empowerment. She is director the Fort Street Chorale, and has formerly conducted choirs at University of Michigan the UMS Choral Union. In the realm of opera, Abela was one of ten women selected to participate in the inaugural Dallas Women's Conducting Institute. She has guest conducted opera productions with Detroit's OperaMODO and serves as music director for Vancouver-based opera company, Re:Naissance. In 2012, Abela was featured conducting on NBC's Today Show and was a semi-finalist in Season 8 of America's Got Talent as director of Connecticut-based 3 Penny Chorus and Orchestra. The ensemble later recorded for the soundtrack of Hollywood film Walk of Shame starring Elizabeth Banks. While in Connecticut, Abela served on faculty at Wesleyan University, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, The Westover School and Notre Dame High School. Abela received her doctorate in conducting from the University of Michigan, holds a master’s degree in choral conducting from Yale University, and bachelor of arts from Smith College. Abela sings professionally in ensembles across the country such as Yale Choral Artists, sounding light, Etherea Vocal Ensemble, and Audivi. Originally from the San Francisco bay area, she lives in Detroit with her husband, Noah, and one-year-old, Hazel.
James Bassi
JAMES BASSI’s compositions have been performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall. His Petrarch Dances was commissioned and premiered by Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Three of his works were commissioned by Voices of Ascension: Quem Pastores Laudavere, which was sung for Midnight Mass at the Vatican on Christmas Eve 2016; O Lux Beata Trinitas; and Dialogue: Angel of Peace, Angel of War, featuring a text by poet Dean Kostos. Mr. Bassi's sacred works are heard in services at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where he enjoyed a working musical tenure of over two decades. His Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis was premiered at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. In 2015, his oratorio Five Prayers, written to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz, was premiered in St. Paul. In December 2016, his A Certain Slant of Light was premiered by the Stonewall Chorale. Two of his chamber works had NYC premieres in recent seasons: Piano Quartet, and String Quartet in Five Movements. Currently he is composing a new music theatre work in collaboration with Stephen Lance. Mr. Bassi has received composition grants from the NEA, Meet the Composer, and New York Foundation for the Arts. His music publisher is Oxford University Press.
In concerts, James has collaborated as pianist/arranger in concerts with Deborah Voigt, Ute Lemper, Jesse Norman, and Tovah Feldshuh. He has worked as music director at Lincoln Center Theater, York Theatre, numerous Off-Broadway and regional theaters, Vital Opera, and Bard Summerscape. He has conducted two choral concerts in the Music Before 1800 series. He is frequently engaged as rehearsal pianist for the New York Philharmonic. James toured the world as tenor soloist in Steve Reich’s opera, The Cave, and appears on the Nonesuch recording of the work. He sings regularly with leading NYC ensembles, including Voices of Ascension. He was proud to be producer for C4 in their first two CD recordings.
In concerts, James has collaborated as pianist/arranger in concerts with Deborah Voigt, Ute Lemper, Jesse Norman, and Tovah Feldshuh. He has worked as music director at Lincoln Center Theater, York Theatre, numerous Off-Broadway and regional theaters, Vital Opera, and Bard Summerscape. He has conducted two choral concerts in the Music Before 1800 series. He is frequently engaged as rehearsal pianist for the New York Philharmonic. James toured the world as tenor soloist in Steve Reich’s opera, The Cave, and appears on the Nonesuch recording of the work. He sings regularly with leading NYC ensembles, including Voices of Ascension. He was proud to be producer for C4 in their first two CD recordings.
Abbie Betinis
Composer ABBIE BETINIS (b. 1980) has loved experimenting with sound since age 3, when her parents – singing in the car – heard an excited squeal from the backseat: “I holded my own hawmony!” Now her catalog of over sixty commissioned works includes projects for the American Suzuki Foundation, Cantus, Dale Warland Singers, James Sewell Ballet, The Rose Ensemble, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, and Zeitgeist.
A language enthusiast with a penchant for research, Abbie enjoys exploring the world through music, leading her to incorporate into her projects elements from early American shape-note singing, Chinese compassion mantras, ancient Greek binding spells, Gaelic keening, Japanese origami, and – in an extended piece for women’s voices with cello, oud, and Persian hand drums – the mysticism of 14th c. Sufism.
A language enthusiast with a penchant for research, Abbie enjoys exploring the world through music, leading her to incorporate into her projects elements from early American shape-note singing, Chinese compassion mantras, ancient Greek binding spells, Gaelic keening, Japanese origami, and – in an extended piece for women’s voices with cello, oud, and Persian hand drums – the mysticism of 14th c. Sufism.
Hayes Biggs
HAYES BIGGS was born in Huntsville, Alabama and raised in Helena, Arkansas. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Columbia University, a Master of Music degree in composition from Southern Methodist University, and a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Rhodes College. His teachers include Don Freund, Mario Davidovsky, Jack Beeson, Fred Lerdahl, Marvin Lamb and Donald Erb.
Biggs has been a fellow in composition at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley, the Tanglewood Music Center, Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Millay Colony for the Arts and the MacDowell Colony. Other honors include a residency at Copland House and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. Biggs has received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, the American Composers Forum, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Riverside Symphony, the Florilegium Chamber Choir, Rhodes College, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and organist Gail Archer.
He is a professional choral singer in the New York City area and has sung with such distinguished ensembles as the Florilegium Chamber Choir, the Gregg Smith Singers, Musica Sacra, the New Calliope Singers, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Pro Arte Singers, and Toby Twining Music.
Currently Biggs is a member of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective. From 1991-2001 he was Associate Editor at C. F. Peters Corporation and he has been on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music since 1992.
Biggs’s music has been heard throughout the United States, in Europe, and in Latin America, in performances by the NDR-Chor (Hamburg), the Gregg Smith Singers, the New Calliope Singers, the New Amsterdam Singers, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Kiitos, the Florilegium Chamber Choir, the Avalon String Quartet, the Locrian Chamber Players, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Riverside Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, Voices of Change, Musicians’ Accord, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Empyrean Ensemble, Parnassus, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, the Concord Ensemble, C4, and the League of Composers/ISCM. His works, published by C. F. Peters Corporation, APNM and Margun Music, Inc., may be heard on the Albany, PARMA and Pro Organo labels. He is a member of BMI.
Biggs has been a fellow in composition at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley, the Tanglewood Music Center, Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Millay Colony for the Arts and the MacDowell Colony. Other honors include a residency at Copland House and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. Biggs has received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, the American Composers Forum, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Riverside Symphony, the Florilegium Chamber Choir, Rhodes College, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and organist Gail Archer.
He is a professional choral singer in the New York City area and has sung with such distinguished ensembles as the Florilegium Chamber Choir, the Gregg Smith Singers, Musica Sacra, the New Calliope Singers, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Pro Arte Singers, and Toby Twining Music.
Currently Biggs is a member of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective. From 1991-2001 he was Associate Editor at C. F. Peters Corporation and he has been on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music since 1992.
Biggs’s music has been heard throughout the United States, in Europe, and in Latin America, in performances by the NDR-Chor (Hamburg), the Gregg Smith Singers, the New Calliope Singers, the New Amsterdam Singers, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Kiitos, the Florilegium Chamber Choir, the Avalon String Quartet, the Locrian Chamber Players, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Riverside Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, Voices of Change, Musicians’ Accord, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Empyrean Ensemble, Parnassus, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, the Concord Ensemble, C4, and the League of Composers/ISCM. His works, published by C. F. Peters Corporation, APNM and Margun Music, Inc., may be heard on the Albany, PARMA and Pro Organo labels. He is a member of BMI.
Colin Britt
COLIN BRITT, originally from Maine, holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition from the Hartt School, a master’s degree in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and a doctorate in choral conducting from Rutgers University. His conducting teachers have included Patrick Gardner, Marguerite Brooks, Jeffrey Douma, Simon Carrington, Edward Bolkovac, and Masaaki Suzuki. He has studied composition with David Macbride, Larry Alan Smith, Ken Steen, and Stephen Gryc, organ with Ezequiel Menendez, piano with Margreet Francis and Brian Franck, and voice with Wayne Rivera, Cherie Caluda, and Judith Malafronte. He has sung with Yale Choral Artists, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Greater Middletown Chorale, Con Brio, and Concora.
His compositions have been performed by ensembles at Rutgers, Westminster Choir College, Hartt, Yale, and throughout the country, including Seraphic Fire, the Yale Schola Cantorum, the Yale Alumni Chorus, C4 (The Choral Composer-Conductor Collective), VOCE, and the Riverside Choral Society. In the 2008-2009 season, he was the composer-in-residence for the New Haven Chorale. His works have been performed in several states and by ensembles touring China, Austria, Hungary, Georgia, Armenia, and the Czech Republic. He was a finalist in the 2013 Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Competition for Young Composers. His choral compositions are published with Alliance Music Publications, Edition Peters, and GIA Publications.
Also active in musical theater, Colin has directed music for productions with the West Hartford Summer Arts Festival, the Summer Place Players, and Playhouse on Park, most recently in their productions of Cabaret, Chicago (for which he and Darlene Zoller won the 2011 CT Broadway World Award for Best Direction), Company, and The Last Five Years. Other musical direction credits include Singin’ in the Rain, Tommy, Fiddler on the Roof, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Joseph and the Amazing…, and Sweeney Todd.
In 2012-2013, he and his friend and colleague Arianne Abela founded and directed 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra, a pickup ensemble that specialized in choral/orchestral covers of popular music. This led to performances on The Today Show and America’s Got Talent, culminating in a performance at Radio City Music Hall.
Colin has served as a part-time lecturer in choral music and conductor of the University Choir at Rutgers, as music director of Marquand Chapel at Yale, on the adjunct conducting faculty at Hartt, as the conductor of the Hartford Chorale Chamber Singers, as the assistant music director at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, and recently completed a sabbatical replacement as director of choral activities at SUNY New Paltz. He currently serves as choir director at Rutgers Preparatory School, as director of music for Grace Church Van Vorst in Jersey City, and conducts the West Village Chorale in New York City.
His compositions have been performed by ensembles at Rutgers, Westminster Choir College, Hartt, Yale, and throughout the country, including Seraphic Fire, the Yale Schola Cantorum, the Yale Alumni Chorus, C4 (The Choral Composer-Conductor Collective), VOCE, and the Riverside Choral Society. In the 2008-2009 season, he was the composer-in-residence for the New Haven Chorale. His works have been performed in several states and by ensembles touring China, Austria, Hungary, Georgia, Armenia, and the Czech Republic. He was a finalist in the 2013 Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Competition for Young Composers. His choral compositions are published with Alliance Music Publications, Edition Peters, and GIA Publications.
Also active in musical theater, Colin has directed music for productions with the West Hartford Summer Arts Festival, the Summer Place Players, and Playhouse on Park, most recently in their productions of Cabaret, Chicago (for which he and Darlene Zoller won the 2011 CT Broadway World Award for Best Direction), Company, and The Last Five Years. Other musical direction credits include Singin’ in the Rain, Tommy, Fiddler on the Roof, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Joseph and the Amazing…, and Sweeney Todd.
In 2012-2013, he and his friend and colleague Arianne Abela founded and directed 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra, a pickup ensemble that specialized in choral/orchestral covers of popular music. This led to performances on The Today Show and America’s Got Talent, culminating in a performance at Radio City Music Hall.
Colin has served as a part-time lecturer in choral music and conductor of the University Choir at Rutgers, as music director of Marquand Chapel at Yale, on the adjunct conducting faculty at Hartt, as the conductor of the Hartford Chorale Chamber Singers, as the assistant music director at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, and recently completed a sabbatical replacement as director of choral activities at SUNY New Paltz. He currently serves as choir director at Rutgers Preparatory School, as director of music for Grace Church Van Vorst in Jersey City, and conducts the West Village Chorale in New York City.
Reena Esmail
Indian-American composer REENA ESMAIL works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces.
In recent seasons, Esmail has worked with the Kronos Quartet, Albany Symphony, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Salastina Music Society, SOLI, and American Composers Orchestra. Her work is performed regularly throughout the US and abroad, and has been programmed at Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre in London, Schloss Esterhazy in Hungary, and throughout India. She has served as Composer in Residence for Albany Symphony (2016-17), Street Symphony (2016-present) in downtown Los Angeles, Concerts on the Slope (2015-16) in Brooklyn, NY and the Pasadena Master Chorale (2014-16) in Pasadena, CA.
Esmail received a 2011-12 Fulbright-Nehru to study Hindustani music in India, where she was also a 2011 INK Fellow (in association with TED). In 2010, Esmail co-founded of Yale’s Hindi a cappella group, Sur et Veritaal. Esmail’s doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers. Her teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Saili Oak.
In recent seasons, Esmail has worked with the Kronos Quartet, Albany Symphony, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Salastina Music Society, SOLI, and American Composers Orchestra. Her work is performed regularly throughout the US and abroad, and has been programmed at Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre in London, Schloss Esterhazy in Hungary, and throughout India. She has served as Composer in Residence for Albany Symphony (2016-17), Street Symphony (2016-present) in downtown Los Angeles, Concerts on the Slope (2015-16) in Brooklyn, NY and the Pasadena Master Chorale (2014-16) in Pasadena, CA.
Esmail received a 2011-12 Fulbright-Nehru to study Hindustani music in India, where she was also a 2011 INK Fellow (in association with TED). In 2010, Esmail co-founded of Yale’s Hindi a cappella group, Sur et Veritaal. Esmail’s doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers. Her teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Saili Oak.
Meredith Monk
MEREDITH MONK (b. November 20, 1942, New York City) is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films and installations. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance.” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound, discovering and weaving together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which there are no words.
Tarik O'Regan
TARIK O'REGAN (born: London, 1978) has written music for a wide variety of ensembles and organizations; these include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Sydney Dance Company, Chamber Choir Ireland, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal Opera House, London.
The Phoenix, his opera about the life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera with a libretto by John Caird, will receive its premiere in April 2019, starring Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni. Other highlights of the 2018/19 season include revival performances of two large-scale concert works, Solitude Trilogy and Mass Observation, by the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Houston Chamber Choir respectively.
O’Regan’s work, recognized with two GRAMMY® nominations and two British Composer Awards, has been recorded on 36 albums and is published exclusively by Novello & Co. Ltd, part of the Music Sales Group.
The Phoenix, his opera about the life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera with a libretto by John Caird, will receive its premiere in April 2019, starring Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni. Other highlights of the 2018/19 season include revival performances of two large-scale concert works, Solitude Trilogy and Mass Observation, by the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Houston Chamber Choir respectively.
O’Regan’s work, recognized with two GRAMMY® nominations and two British Composer Awards, has been recorded on 36 albums and is published exclusively by Novello & Co. Ltd, part of the Music Sales Group.
Jake Runestad
JAKE RUNESTAD is an award-winning and frequently-performed composer of “highly imaginative” (Baltimore Sun) and “stirring and uplifting” (Miami Herald) musical works. He has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles and organizations such as Washington National Opera, VOCES8, the Swedish Radio Symphony, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Seraphic Fire, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare, and many more. Jake’s visceral music and charismatic personality have fostered a busy schedule of commissions, residencies, workshops, and speaking engagements, enabling him to be one of the youngest full-time composers in the world. Considered “one of the best of the younger American composers” (Chicago Tribune), Jake Runestad holds a Master’s degree in composition from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts. Has has also studied extensively with acclaimed composer Libby Larsen. A native of Rockford, IL, Mr. Runestad is currently based in Minneapolis, MN and his music is published by JR Music.
Martha Sullivan
Composer Martha Sullivan creates music in various genres but is best known for her works for the human voice. She has earned accolades for her choral music and has won competitions sponsored by such organizations as the Dale Warland Singers and the Sorel Organization. Her music has been commissioned and performed by groups as far away as Glasgow, Tokyo, and Zurich, as well as by numerous choral groups in the United States.
She is also a professional singer, specializing in new music; she has recorded and premiered works by such avant-grade composers as Toby Twining and John Zorn. She currently sings with, conducts in, and composes music for C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective in New York City. She has also sung in every opera staged at Bard Summerscape since 2009.
Her education includes a B.A. in Music from Yale and studies at Boston University's Opera Institute; she is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Rutgers. Her dissertation focuses on the semiotic implications of one particular musical gesture—the Siren topos—in music ranging from early 19th-century Lorelei songs to 20th-century operas to 1960s television theme songs. She has presented parts of this work at various international conferences on music theory.
She has taught for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (as voice faculty and as coordinator of the Music Theory program for high-school singers); New York University/CAP21 (teaching music theory to music-theater students at NYU's Tisch School); the Gregg Smith Singers (teaching voice and composition to students in Gregg's summer workshops); Rutgers (Aural Skills, Intro to Music Technology, and Intro to Music); and Westminster Choir College (Musicianship I and Musicianship III, both of which combine music theory with hands-on aural skills work).
She is also a professional singer, specializing in new music; she has recorded and premiered works by such avant-grade composers as Toby Twining and John Zorn. She currently sings with, conducts in, and composes music for C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective in New York City. She has also sung in every opera staged at Bard Summerscape since 2009.
Her education includes a B.A. in Music from Yale and studies at Boston University's Opera Institute; she is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Rutgers. Her dissertation focuses on the semiotic implications of one particular musical gesture—the Siren topos—in music ranging from early 19th-century Lorelei songs to 20th-century operas to 1960s television theme songs. She has presented parts of this work at various international conferences on music theory.
She has taught for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (as voice faculty and as coordinator of the Music Theory program for high-school singers); New York University/CAP21 (teaching music theory to music-theater students at NYU's Tisch School); the Gregg Smith Singers (teaching voice and composition to students in Gregg's summer workshops); Rutgers (Aural Skills, Intro to Music Technology, and Intro to Music); and Westminster Choir College (Musicianship I and Musicianship III, both of which combine music theory with hands-on aural skills work).
Dale Trumbore
DALE TRUMBORE is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer whose music has been praised by The New York Times for its "soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies." Trumbore's compositions have been performed widely in the U.S. and internationally by ensembles including the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, Modesto Symphony, Neave Trio, Pacific Chorale, Pasadena Symphony, The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists, and VocalEssence.
Trevor Weston
TREVOR WESTON's music has been called a “gently syncopated marriage of intellect and feeling.” (Detroit Free Press) Weston’s honors include the George Ladd Prix de Paris from the University of California, Berkeley, a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the MacDowell Colony.
Weston’s Flying Fish, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the American Composers Orchestra, was described as having, “…episodes of hurtling energy, the music certainly suggested wondrous aquatic feats. I was especially affected, though, by an extended slower, quizzical episode with pensive strings and plaintive chords.” (New York Times). The Boston Landmarks Orchestra commissioned Griot Legacies for choir and orchestra, a work created with four innovative arrangements of African American Spirituals. Griot Legacies demonstrates Weston’s “knack for piquant harmonies, evocative textures, and effective vocal writing.” (Boston Globe)The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street, under the direction of Julian Wachner, recorded Trevor Weston’s choral works. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered Weston’s composition Dig It, commissioned by the group for the Ecstatic Music Festival in NYC.
A list of ensembles performing Trevor Weston’s compositions include Roomful of Teeth, The Boston Children’s Chorus, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue Choir, The Starling Chamber Orchestra, Mallarme Chamber Players, The Providence Singers, Chicago Sinfonietta, Seraphic Fire, The Tufts Chamber Chorus, Ensemble Pi, The Amernet String Quartet, The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, The Washington Chorus, Trilogy: An Opera Company, and The Manhattan Choral Ensemble. In addition to his creative work, Weston completed the re-orchestration of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto for the Center for Black Music Research in 2010.
Trevor Weston’s musical education began at St. Thomas Choir school in NYC at the age of ten. He attended Tufts University and the University of California, Berkeley where he received is undergrad and graduate degrees in music composition. His primary composition teachers were T. J. Anderson, Olly Wilson and Andrew Imbrie and Richard Felciano. Dr. Weston is currently a Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Drew University in Madison, NJ.
Weston’s Flying Fish, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the American Composers Orchestra, was described as having, “…episodes of hurtling energy, the music certainly suggested wondrous aquatic feats. I was especially affected, though, by an extended slower, quizzical episode with pensive strings and plaintive chords.” (New York Times). The Boston Landmarks Orchestra commissioned Griot Legacies for choir and orchestra, a work created with four innovative arrangements of African American Spirituals. Griot Legacies demonstrates Weston’s “knack for piquant harmonies, evocative textures, and effective vocal writing.” (Boston Globe)The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street, under the direction of Julian Wachner, recorded Trevor Weston’s choral works. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered Weston’s composition Dig It, commissioned by the group for the Ecstatic Music Festival in NYC.
A list of ensembles performing Trevor Weston’s compositions include Roomful of Teeth, The Boston Children’s Chorus, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue Choir, The Starling Chamber Orchestra, Mallarme Chamber Players, The Providence Singers, Chicago Sinfonietta, Seraphic Fire, The Tufts Chamber Chorus, Ensemble Pi, The Amernet String Quartet, The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, The Washington Chorus, Trilogy: An Opera Company, and The Manhattan Choral Ensemble. In addition to his creative work, Weston completed the re-orchestration of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto for the Center for Black Music Research in 2010.
Trevor Weston’s musical education began at St. Thomas Choir school in NYC at the age of ten. He attended Tufts University and the University of California, Berkeley where he received is undergrad and graduate degrees in music composition. His primary composition teachers were T. J. Anderson, Olly Wilson and Andrew Imbrie and Richard Felciano. Dr. Weston is currently a Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Drew University in Madison, NJ.
Eric Whitacre
Grammy® Award-winning composer and conductor ERIC WHITACRE is among today’s most popular musicians. His works have been programmed worldwide by millions of amateur and professional performers, while his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united singers from over 120 different countries. Eric, a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, is presently Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, following five years as Composer in Residence at the University of Cambridge, UK.
As conductor of the Eric Whitacre Singers, he has released such chart-topping albums including Light and Gold and Water Night. In high demand as guest conductor, he has drawn capacity audiences to concerts with the Netherlands Radio Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Flemish Radio Choir, and Minnesota Orchestra. His creative versatility shines through collaborations with legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer and British pop icons Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap and Annie Lennox, and major classical commissions for, among others, the BBC Proms, Minnesota Orchestra, Rundfunkchor Berlin, The Tallis Scholars, Chanticleer, Los Angeles Master Chorale and The King’s Singers.
As conductor of the Eric Whitacre Singers, he has released such chart-topping albums including Light and Gold and Water Night. In high demand as guest conductor, he has drawn capacity audiences to concerts with the Netherlands Radio Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Flemish Radio Choir, and Minnesota Orchestra. His creative versatility shines through collaborations with legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer and British pop icons Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap and Annie Lennox, and major classical commissions for, among others, the BBC Proms, Minnesota Orchestra, Rundfunkchor Berlin, The Tallis Scholars, Chanticleer, Los Angeles Master Chorale and The King’s Singers.
