Washington Bach Consort Season Opener to Feature World Premiere by Composer Trevor Weston

A NEW SONG:  Reflecting on several ideas about music, Trevor Weston’s new work is to be featured by the Washington Bach Consort.

 

by Patrick D. McCoy

This Sunday, September 18 at 4 PM The Washington Bach Consort will open its 45th Anniversary season with the performance of a world-premiere by critically acclaimed composer Trevor Weston.  His composition A New Song will give the period instrument wheelhouse of the ensemble the opportunity to expand its musical horizons in a fresh, new combination of voices and instruments. Concluding the program, complimenting ideas somewhat in response will be J.S. Bach’s dramatic secular cantata, Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201.

We caught up with the composer briefly about his work being featured for this particular concert by the consort.   “To celebrate their 45th season, the Washington Bach Consort asked me to create a new cantata in response to Bach’s Cantata 201. The Bach cantata tells the story of a musical competition between Phoebus and Pan. In response, my piece asks question about music evaluation such as:  What makes music good?  Whose music is featured? etc. with further ruminations on this subject.” Weston shared.

The pre-concert talk Talking Bach at 3 p.m. will feature Artistic Director Dr. Dana Marsh and Dr. Trevor Weston with Bach scholar Michael Marissen in a rare and engaging talk about Weston’s premiere and Bach’s Geschwinde, Ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201.

About the composer:

Weston’s musical education began at the prestigious St. Thomas Choir school in NYC at the age of ten. He received his B.A. from Tufts University and continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned his M. A. and Ph. D. in Music Composition. His primary composition teachers were T. J. Anderson, Olly Wilson, Andrew Imbrie and Richard Felciano. Dr. Weston is currently Professor of Music at Drew University in Madison, NJ. Weston also teaches in the MAP/Pre-College programs at the Juilliard School. Dr. 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, the 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, the MacDowell Colony and a residency with Castle of our Skins at the Longy School of Music. 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’s work, Juba for Strings won the Sonori/New Orleans Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition. Trevor Weston won the first Emerging Black Composers Project sponsored by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony.

If you are going:

FOR TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

Sunday, September 18, 4:00 PM at the National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20016

PROGRAM:  World Premiere-“A New Song” Trevor Weston|Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201, J. S. Bach

SOLOISTS:

 

Trevor Weston featured on “Across the Arts With Patrick D. McCoy

 

A native of Petersburg, VA, Patrick holds a BM in Vocal Performance from Virginia State University and a MM in Church Music from Shenandoah Conservatory. Formerly the Performing Arts Columnist for Washington Life Magazine, he currently is a freelance writer, publishing articles for several noted publications and organizations, including The Washington Post, Early Music America, Classical Music Voice North America, The Afro-American Newspaper, Prince George’s Suite Magazine, CBS Washington and Examiner.com. Most recently, he was named as a new contributor to Washington Classical Classical Review. He holds membership in the Music Critics Association of North America, National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc., American Choral Directors’ Association, Association of Anglican Musicians, a former member of the Shenandoah University Alumni Board of Directors, a member of the Shenandoah University Black Alumni Network and a Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Just recently he was named to the Dean’s Circle of the Shenandoah Conservatory Advisory Board.  He serves as Organist/Choirmaster at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Zion Parish in Beltsville, MD and is Interim Director of Choral Activities and Instructor of Music at Virginia State University. Visit http://patrickdmccoy.com and follow him on twitter @PatrickDMcCoy, IG: PDM06. and subscribe to “Across the Arts” on YouTube.