Introduction to Eric Ewazen

“I like that idea of the music finding me. I had never thought of it quite like that before, because it is true that certain music speaks to you. You hear certain pieces where it's suddenly so breathtakingly beautiful, or you hear a chord progression that a certain composer used, or a piece of music that suddenly becomes so exciting and energetic, and you sort of want to imitate that style! You're learning a language that way. So when I compose I'm always listening to music by a lot of different composers. Composers of the past, composers around today, and world music. I'll listen to everything. I really try to keep an open mind about everything. Of course I was schooled, as I was saying, in quite a bit of atonality myself, and I just feel that I can pick and choose from the different languages, and then ultimately find my own expression, which happens to be very much a tonal style. But it's a tonal style where it can have moments of some of the other styles. I guess a lot of us are branded as being sort of eclectic composers, and when critics use that word they mean it as a put-down by saying you can't make up your mind what you want to do. But that's the style, that's the period we're living in, when all these styles are existing simultaneously. When you've learned so many, and at this point you want to just use a little bit of this or that, why not? Indeed, why not?” Eric Ewazen


Eric Ewazen was born in 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied composition with Samuel Adler, Milton Babbitt, Warren Benson, Gunther Schuller, and Joseph Schwanter at the Eastman School of Music, Tanglewood, and The Julliard School. He has been a member of the faculty at Juilliard since 1980.
A recipient of numerous composition awards and prizes, his works have been commissioned and performed by many chamber ensembles and orchestras in the United States and overseas. His music has been heard at festivals such as Woodstock, Tanglewood, Aspen, Caramoor, and the Music Academy of the West. The soloists in performances of his music include members of the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Fransisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Southern Music Company has published his quintet for wind instruments “Roaring Fork”, and his sonatas for horn, trombone, and tuba were publication in 1998.
Among his recorded works are the Symphony in Brass, Colchester Fantasy, and the Ballad for Clarinet, Harp, and String Orchestra. Well-Tempered Productions has released and all Ewazen compact disc featuring the American Brass Quintet, the Chamber Ensemble of St. Luke’s, trumpeter Chris Gekker, and Grammy winner William Sharp.
Eric Ewazen’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano was commissioned by and is dedicated to the International Trumpet Guild. The Sonata was premiered by Chris Gekker with the composer at the piano at the International Trumpet Guild Convention at Indiana University on May 30, 1995.# Ewazen during his career has not just been successful for brass instruments; he has been successful in many genres outside the brass realm. Over the span of his career his works have been performed in orchestras in the United States and abroad. The International Trumpet Guild commissioned Ewazen’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano in 1993.