Weston, Trevor
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, an Arts and Letters Award in Music and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, MacDowell. Weston co-authored with Olly Wilson, chapter 5 in the Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington, “Duke Ellington as a Cultural Icon” published by Cambridge University Press.
Weston won the first Emerging Black Composers Project. The award commissioned Push noted for, “Working in terse, delicate strokes, Weston covers a range of references from the African American musical tradition.” (San Francisco Chronicle) The San Francisco Symphony premiered Push under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Recordings and performances of Weston’s chamber music include the honor of a JACK Quartet Studio Recording Project for his string quartets Juba and Fudo Myoo. Weston’s work, Juba for Strings won the Sonori/New Orleans Chamber Orchestra Composition competition. Dan Flanagan commissioned Notre Dame au Millieu for solo violin to appear on the recording The Bow and The Brush. Weston’s Pinkster Kings and Shape Shifter are featured on Ensemble Pi’s recording Reparations Now. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered Weston’s composition Dig It, commissioned by the group for the Ecstatic Music Festival in NYC. The Etchings Festival presented a portrait concert of Weston's chamber works. His duet ANS for flute and marimba was featured in the Contemporary Music Festival at Tanglewood.
The Boston Globe described Weston’s choral music as having a “knack for piquant harmonies, evocative textures, and effective vocal writing.” The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street recorded a collection of Weston’s Choral Works, for Acis Productions. His first cantata, A New Song, commissioned by the early music ensemble Washington Bach Consort under the direction of Dana Marsh, explores the nature of music using original text by the composer. American Lamentation, composed for the Choir of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Jeremy Filsell director, is an oratorio engaging the history of slavery in the NYC area and its connection to the church. The work, “establishes a distinct voice even as it incorporates a variety of traditions.” Other performances include The Bang on a Can All-Stars commissioned work Dig It, New York Philharmonic, Chanticleer, Roomful of Teeth, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, The Providence Singers, The Boston Children’s Chorus, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue Choir, Harvard University Choruses, Yale Choral Artists, Seraphic Fire, Sacred and Profane.
Dr. Weston is Professor of Music, Chair of the Music Department at Drew University in Madison, NJ, and a music composition instructor for the MAP and Pre-College programs at the Juilliard School, NYC.