ABOUT
Peter Evans is a composer, trumpet player, improvisor and bandleader based in New York City since 2003. Evans is part of a broad, hybridized scene of musical experimentation, and his work cuts across a wide range of modern musical practices and traditions.
He leads and composes for several ensembles including Being & Becoming (with Joel Ross, Nick Jozwiak & Tyshawn Sorey) his trio Extra (with Petter Eldh and Jim Black), Symphony, the collaborative trio Pulverize the Sound (with Tim Dahl and Mike Pride), as well as many other evolving configurations. His past groups such as the Zebulon trio and the Peter Evans Quintet toured the US and Europe extensively and recorded prolifically. Evans continues to work in a variety of new formations, exploring through-composed music, group improvisation, arranging, Early Music, Jazz standards and electronic music.
In addition to touring and presenting his groups internationally since 2007, Evans has been exploring solo trumpet music since 2002 and is widely recognized as a leading voice in the field, having released 7 albums of solo music since 2006, including the critically claimed “More is More” and “Lifeblood”. He has performed solo in the USA, Europe, Asia, and South America, including a debut at the Venice Biennale in 2024.
As a composer, he has been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Wet Ink, Yarn/Wire, the Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival, the Jerome Foundation's Emerging Artist Program, and the Doris Duke Foundation. Evans has presented and/or performed his works at major festivals worldwide. He has composed works for his own ensembles, soloists, chamber ensembles, and choir. In 2022 Evans was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition.
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As an educator, Evans has given masterclasses and conducted workshops on improvisation, composition, instrumental practice and creativity at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, the New School of Social Research, Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Hochschule für Musik Köln, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Institute of Sonology, Melbourne University, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, University of Toronto, University of Oregon, Cornish College, Oberlin Conservatory, and Cleveland Institute of Music. Between 2019 and 2022 Evans conducted a series of performance-centered workshops with young musicians in Lisbon, Porto and the Azores called Som Crescente. In 2020 he received a grant from the US Embassy in Lisbon to further develop this series.
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Evans has worked with some of the leading figures in contemporary music: John Zorn, Pauline Oliveros, Brian Ferneyhough, Kanye West, George Lewis, Anthony Braxton, Mary Halvorson, Craig Taborn, Sofia Jernberg, Ambrose Akinmusere, Weasel Walter, Dave Liebman, Ingrid Laubrock, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Tyshawn Sorey, Ikue Mori, Steve Schick, and works with both the International Contemporary and Wet Ink Ensembles as a performer and composer. ​As an interpreter of notated concert music, Evans has performed works by Varese, Xenakis, Bach, Stravinsky, Elliott Carter, Marcos Balter, Julio Estrada, Agusta Read Thomas, Wagner, Ligeti, and many more.
Peter Evans has been releasing recordings on his own label, More is More, since 2011 with 20 releases to date.