Jess Langston Turner

Jess Langston Turner

Biography

Jess Langston Turner (born 1983 in Greenville, SC), is a promising young composer who has received recognition for his creative sounds and colorful, descriptive scores. Jess Turner holds both the B.Mus degree and the M.Mus degree in trumpet performance from Bob Jones University, and the M.Mus degree in composition from the Hartt School in Hartford, Ct. He is currently working toward the D.Mus. degree at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.

Jess was active in music making playing both trumpet and piano throughout his schooling. His interest in composition began in his high school years where his first attempts at scoring were Debussy preludes for his school orchestra. He began formal study of composition in his junior year of college, and though his graduate program was trumpet performance, Jess studied composition with Dwight Gustafson, Joan Pinkston, and Dan Forrest at Bob Jones University. At The Hartt School, his principal teachers were Robert Carl, Kenneth Steen, and Stephen Gryc. He has had masterclasses and lessons with Pulitzer Prize winners William Bolcom, Michael Colgrass, Jennifer Higdon, and Joseph Schwantner.

Jess Turner has won numerous honors for his music, including the 2005 National Winner of the Young Artist Composition Competition of the Music Teachers National Association for his Sonata for Trumpet Piano. He has won numerous prizes for his choral music, including the 2008 John Ness Beck Award and the 2009 first prize of the Roger Wagner International Choral-Composition Contest. In June, 2010, he was named to the National Band Association Young Composers Mentoring Project and was awarded the 2010 Walter Beeler Prize for Wind Composition for Rumpelstilzchen. In 2012, his work for young band, The Exultant Heart, was awarded the Merrill Jones Composition Prize for Young Bands sponsored by the National Band Association. Jess's music has been published by Hinshaw Publications, Carl Fischer, HaFaBra Publications, Pinner Publications, Jantz Music Publications, and Turner Instrumental Music.

Jess's music has been performed by the U. S. Navy Band, the band at U. S. Military Academy at West Point, and wind ensembles of the Hartt School, Yale University, Ithaca College, the University of Georgia, the University of North Texas, Bob Jones University, Concordia University of Illinois, to name a few. Rumpelstilzchen: A Fairy Tale for Wind Ensemble has been recorded by the Wind Ensemble of the Hartt School and by the University of North Texas Wind Symphony. Rumpelstilzchen had its New York Premiere at Carnegie Hall in May, 2010.

Works for Winds

Works for Band & Wind Ensemble

• Black Bolt!, for wind ensemble (2012)
• Concertino Caboclo, for flute/piccolo and wind ensemble (2012)
• Ford's Machine, for young band (2011)
• He Who Would Valiant Be (2010)
• Heavy Weather -- Concerto for Tuba and Wind Ensemble (2012)
• Like a River Glorious (2008) for horn solo and wind ensemble
• "Lullaby" from ''Memorial to Silent Voices'' for Alto Voice and Wind Ensemble (2011)
• The Exultant Heart, for young band (2011)
• The King of Love My Shepherd Is (2007)
• The Mountain Whippoorwill, for wind ensemble (2011)
• Rumpelstilzchen: A Fairy Tale for Wind Ensemble (2010)
• Through the Looking Glass (2008)

Chamber Works:

• And Can it Be, for brass sextet (2009)
• Agua Nocturna, for chamber winds and percussion quartet (2010)
• Burning Music for chamber ensemble (2011)
• Last Dances of Prospero, for horn quartet (2009)
• Paens for Brass Quintet (2009)
• Urban Etudes for Double String Quartet and Brass Quintet (2009)

References

• Jess Langston Turner - the official website
• Works of Hartt Composer Jess Turner and Chen Yi to Premiere
• Agua Nocturna
• The King of Love
• Rumpelstilzchen: A Fairy Tale for Wind Ensemble
• Concertino Caboclo for flute/pic and Wind Ensemble
• Burning Music for chamber wind ensemble
• Ford's Machine for band