Bio
Trevor Zavac (b. 2000 Hinsdale, IL) is a composer and horn player whose works blend narratives with the abstract to explore the complexity, beauty, and humor of the illogical. In addition to performances by a myriad of solo and chamber musicians, Zavac’s music has been performed by Thornton Edge, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Brevard New Music Ensemble, The Indianapolis Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and the Butler University Composers’ Orchestra. Excited by artistic collaboration, his music for ballet has been choreographed and performed by the Indianapolis Ballet and the Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department. A 2024 ASCAP Morton Gould Award winner, Zavac’s compositions have received awards from The Brevard Music Center and the International Horn Society. He holds a B.M. in Composition and a B.M. in Horn Performance form the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and is currently pursuing a M.M. in Composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.Â
Long Bio
Trevor Zavac (b. 2000 Hinsdale, IL) is a composer and horn player. A graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he double majored in composition and horn performance, Zavac has studied horn with Dr. Gail Lewis, Richard Seraphinoff, and Thomas Jöstlein; and composition with Michael Schelle, PQ Phan, David Dzubay, Aaron Travers, and Donald Crockett. He currently attends the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he is pursuing a M.M. in Composition.
Zavac’s music has been performed by a myriad of chamber groups and large ensembles at the University of Southern California, the Brevard Music Center, Butler University, and Indiana University; including Thornton Edge, the Butler University Composers Orchestra, and the Brevard Music Center New Music Ensemble, among others. In both November of 2022 and 2023, his music was choreographed by Eli Diersing and performed by the Indianapolis Ballet for their “New Works” performance series.
In the summers 2021 and 2022, Zavac attended the Brevard Music Center Summer Composition Institute in Brevard, North Carolina where his orchestra piece, Convulsions, was awarded a premiere by the Brevard Music Center Orchestra under the direction of Keith Lockhart. Zavac’s “Fringe” won honorable mention in the 2022 International Horn Society Composition Contest and was exhibited at the International Horn Symposium in Montreal in July of 2023. In 2024, Zavac was awarded an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award for his piece, The Butterfly.
As an instrumentalist, Zavac has performed with a myriad of ensembles at Butler University, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California. In addition to studying horn, Zavac is a historical performer of fortepiano, on which he presents historically curated concerts as a costumed first and/or third person interpreter at living history museums around the country. As a conductor, Zavac lead the Big Red Horn Club at IU from 2022-2024.
Zavac is also an accomplished writer and poet; he has received recognition at both the state and national level for his humor writing and poetry. His humorous short story, “Letter to My Substitute,” was published in Scholastic’s anthology The Best Teen Writing of 2018. This love for literature inspires Zavac’s musical exploration. Regarding visual art, Zavac is a historically informed textile artist; his work in spinning and weaving has received numerous awards at the Indiana State Fair.
By the way, it is pronounced ZAY-VAK.
Just pretend you are saying “the vac” in a bad French accent.
