Kirk Trevor, conductorInternationally known conductor, recording artist and teacher Kirk Trevor is a regular guest conductor in the world’s concert halls. Born and educated in England, he graduated cum laude in cello performance and conducting. He furthered his conducting studies with the late Sir Adrian Boult and cello with Paul Tortelier. He came to the United States in 1975 on a Fulbright grant and subsequently became Resident Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He then served as Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra for 18 years until 2003, when he became Conductor Laureate.
With the Knoxville Symphony, he achieved record ticket sales 11 consecutive years. Innovative programing and a focus on reaching new audiences, whether Generation Z or baby-boomers, enabled Trevor to reach first time concert-goers with programs that are entertaining, engaging and educational. It is part of his life-long philosophy to make classical music relevant within 21st century culture. Maestro Trevor also served as Music Director of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra for twenty-seven years until 2015, leading the orchestra in a variety of subscription programs orchestral and choral. He now serves as Music Director Laureate. In 2000, Maestro Trevor became Music Director of the Missouri Symphony Orchestra. He has led the orchestra in the summer music festival since 2001 and in 2004 transformed it into the Hot Summer Nights Music Festival, expanding the program to include Classical, Pops, Family and Chamber Series, as well as silent movies. In 2011, he created and conducted the first Symphony of Toys Holiday Concert, now an annual tradition, the concert supporting the Toys for Tots program and sponsored by Shelter Insurance. In 2007, Trevor founded the Missouri Symphony Conservatory, a new initiative to train, educate and inspire young musicians in a variety of activities through the Children’s Chorus (founded in 2002) and the three orchestras, Junior Sinfonia, Young Artists Philharmonic and Chamber Players which he directs. He strives to create a program that nurtures and develops the total musician within each student and inspiring them to achieve extra-musical and communicative goals rather than just performance ones. The award-winning Conservatory now numbers more than 130 students. It has been through Maestro Trevor’s devotion to music education and his involvement in the training and development of new generations of listeners, players and conductors that he has developed an international following. He is widely recognized as one of the leading conducting teachers in the world. His International Workshop for Conductors held each year in Europe is in its 27th year and draws more than 50 conductors from around the world to study with him. He also teaches annually in Brazil and has in recent years taught in, Hong Kong, Norway, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. His unusual teaching of conducting technique based on the physics of the tennis ball, has made him the technique “guru” to more than 700 students worldwide. As a guest conductor, Maestro Trevor has appeared with more than 40 orchestras in 16 countries. He made his London Symphony Orchestra debut in 2002 and his Carnegie Hall debut in 2007. From 1995 to 2000 he was Music Director of the Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic and from 2002 until 2005 was Principal Guest Conductor of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since 2001, Trevor has been a regular fixture in the recording studios of the world. He has made more than 115 recordings of music ranging from the Baroque to the current day and from choral requiems to video game scores, including Diablo II. His latest project has been for the Amazon Prime TV series Mozart in the Jungle, where he has recorded the music as well as served as a conducting teaching model for the actors. He records for EMI, Naxos, Albany, Navrona and Crystal labels, with a special emphasis on new American composers and accompanying many of the world’s great soloists including Richard Stoltzman, Joshua Pierce, John Manasse, Phillipe Quint and Chloe Hanslip among others. He is one of the world’s most recorded conductors of the past 30 years. In Columbia Maestro Trevor has an active cello studio with twelve students each year. He enjoys working with young cellists, to find their inner musical soul, while developing a technical base that serves and enhances the musical needs of each student. Maestro Trevor is an avid collector, and has an extensive collection of 19th-century British stamps and an unusually fine collection of antique powder compacts. As an even more avid sportsman, he plays golf, tennis and soccer and is a fanatical Cavaliers fan hoping for another Championship winning season! He is married to Slovak harpist, Maria Duhova-Trevor with whom he has a harp/cello duo Fifty-One Strings, and they have three children, eleven-year-old Sylvia, nine-year-old Daniel, and four-year-old Aiden. His daughter Chloe Trevorfrequently appears as a solo violinist on the world’s concert stages, often with her father as conductor. The Trevors maintain homes in Columbia and Bratislava. |