Terry Everson

Soloist: Opening Concert

“A trumpet player’s trumpet player,” in the words of one of his frequent collaborators, Terry Everson has performed at well over a dozen International Trumpet Guild Conferences since 1980. His first international acclaim occurred in 1988, when the ITG sponsored two major competitions on consecutive days: one specializing in Baroque/Classical, the other in Twentieth Century literature. Everson shocked the Guild by entering and winning both by unanimous juries, performing seven major concerti and sonatas from memory within 30 hours. Everson followed this up just over a year later as First Prize laureate of the 1990 Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition, again performing from memory a full recital and a concerto with orchestra.

Hailed by the Boston Globe for his “dazzling, clarion brightness with elegant edges” and in the Boston Musical Intelligencer for “virtuosity and musicality that was simply stunning”, Terry has released three complete recordings of numerous notable modern works for trumpet and piano. He is Professor of Trumpet at Boston University, appointed to the faculty in 1999; a master pedagogue, his work at BU was recognized with the University’s 2014 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching. He served on the adjudication panel of the 4th International Trumpet Competition “Théo Charlier” in Namur, Belgium, and at the Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Competition at Western Michigan University in 2024.

Terry Everson’s annual Fourth of July performances as Principal Trumpet of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra are viewed by millions worldwide via broadcast and online, and he has been a featured soloist with the orchestra on multiple tours. In 2022 he performed as Guest Principal Trumpet in Gershwin’s Concerto in F and Ellington’s Harlem with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague under the baton of Keith Lockhart. Equally at home in any musical style in front of any ensemble, he has also performed as a soloist with the Costa Rica National Symphony Brass & Percussion, the U.S. Army Band (“Pershing’s Own”), the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, the New England Brass Band, the Lexington Brass Band, among many others.

An active church musician for over three decades, much of Terry Everson’s compositional output derives its basis from hymnody and related materials, such as his trumpet ensembles Ponder Anew and There’s a Great Day Coming, the Christmas carol setting Once in Royal David’s City for bass trombonist Douglas Yeo and the New England Brass Band, and his Hyfrydol Aspects for trumpet and piano written for his son Peter.  Mr. Everson has also written competition pieces for the Boston University Trumpet Ensemble, whose performances of Idea Number Twenty-Four and There and Back Again have won prizes in the National Trumpet Competition; Idea Number Twenty-Four has since become a staple of contest repertoire featured at NTC. His setting of W.L. Thompson’s There’s a Great Day Coming has been recorded by Philip Smith (retired Principal Trumpet, New York Philharmonic) on the Cala label’s New York Legends series, and was a viral sensation in 2019 in a video rendition by the Snarky Puppy trumpets and friends.

In 2023, Mr. Everson retired from three diverse roles, completing 2 years as Music Director of the New England Brass Band, 16 years on the Executive Board of the (USA) National Trumpet Competition, and 25 seasons as Principal Trumpet of the Peninsula Music Festival. This year, he is joining the faculty of the Brevard Music Center.

Terry Everson is an Artist/Clinician for S.E. Shires Trumpets of Holliston, MA, USA, and performs on mouthpieces designed by Pickett Brass.