School: Boyer College of Music and Dance
Degree: MM, choral conducting; MM, composition, 2018
Hometown: San José, California
As a conductor, what excites Trevor Tran, BYR ’18, about rehearsing and performing choral music is creating communities and connecting with people—a commitment he shares with the Temple faculty members who trained him as a Boyer master of music student and continue to shape his life today.
Click the audio above to hear what he has to say.
Photography by Ryan S. Brandenberg
To Tran, a first-year student in the University of Maryland’s doctoral program in choral conducting, the connections that choral music builds between conductor and singers, between the singers in an ensemble, and between the ensemble and its audience are deep and far-reaching.
“Music is, in essence, collaborative and social. It’s a communicative tool,” said Tran, who is serving as the artistic director of the Northern Virginia Chorale and the director of music ministry at Grace United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, while he’s in graduate school. “As a conductor, when you conduct a concert, the music you create communicates a story and connects you and your ensemble with your audience. And when someone walks in who’s going through a lot, I feel it’s your job as a musician to make sure they’re healed and leave the concert whole.”
In the five years before he started his doctoral program at Maryland, Tran was bringing people together through choral music at Fort Myers High School in Florida, where he served as director of vocal arts and head of performing arts. While there, Tran also helped launch the Southwest Florida Choral Festival, which brought leading choral educators—including Boyer College of Music and Dance Vice Dean and Professor Rollo A. Dilworth, a mentor to Tran—to work with students in Lee County’s public schools. He also led workshops as part of the Composition Colloquium, a music writing initiative sponsored by the Florida Vocal Association.
“One of my proudest accomplishments is opening the eyes of my students to the world of choral music,” Tran said. “Many of them had never really sung much before, but by the end of my time there, choral singing had become a dominant factor in their lives.”
“The whole choral faculty—Dr. [Paul] Rardin, Dr. [Mitos] Andaya Hart and Dr. Dilworth—we got really close to them. They’re kind, caring people who open themselves up for their students. We get together almost every year at conferences and other events. Those three professors still play a huge role in my life. They helped shape me as a conductor and as a person.”
–Trevor Tran
Artistic director, director of music ministry
Tran has enjoyed music since childhood. While an undergraduate at San José State, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in composition, he envisioned himself as a composer. However, as he was exposed to ensemble singing and choral conducting in college, he developed a burning passion for choral music and that has led him to where he is today.
“I was serious about composing music in college, but I began to realize that sitting at a desk and composing by myself wasn’t appealing,” Tran said. “I wanted more camaraderie—that feeling of being in a group and interacting with others.”
Tran found that commitment to community at the Boyer College of Music and Dance’s master of music in choral conducting program, known for its rigor, small studio size (it only admits a few students each year), loyal alumni network and world-class faculty members.
“The whole choral faculty—Dr. [Paul] Rardin, Dr. [Mitos] Andaya Hart and Dr. Dilworth—we got really close to them,” Tran said. “They’re kind, caring people who open themselves up for their students.”
Even now, five years after graduating from Temple, the program’s faculty and the tight-knit choral conducting family they created continue to be a source of inspiration and connection for Tran.
“We get together almost every year at conferences and other events,” he said. “Those three professors still play a huge role in my life. They helped shape me as a conductor and as a person.”
These artists are either showcasing their craft or using it as a platform to create opportunity for young people and underrepresented audiences.
Learn more about the master of music in composition at Temple’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.
