Peter Evans
trumpet
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, and 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 U.S sand 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 seven albums of solo music since 2006, including the critically claimed “More is More” and “Lifeblood.” He has performed solo in the U.S., 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.
Evans has worked with some of the leading figures in contemporary music: John Zorn, Pauline Oliveros, Brian Ferneyhough, 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, Augusta Read Thomas, Wagner, Ligeti, and others.