Jeremiah Trujillo, pianist

 

biography

Jeremiah Trujillo is an active collaborative pianist, vocal coach, piano teacher, soloist, and historical musicologist. He holds a Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, Davis. He is the staff collaborative pianist for the Music and Theater Arts departments at Las Positas College. He teaches piano at the Music Land School of Music in San Ramon, CA. His students have won prizes at the Royal International Music Competition. Starting in fall 2021, he's been the accompanist for Pacific Edge Voices, a Berkeley-based semi-professional chorus performing classical and jazz repertoire. Jeremiah is the recipient of numerous awards, including at the 2013 San Francisco Young Pianists Competition, where he received a special prize for the interpretation of a nineteenth-century Romantic work. Jeremiah is a recipient of the 2018 Faculty Recognition Award for Excellence in Musical Performance at UC Davis. He is a recipient of the 2014 Eisner Prize for Music, awarded at the University of California, Berkeley. Jeremiah was also a finalist in the 2013 Carmel Music Society piano competition, held at Sunset Center in Carmel, CA. He also participated in numerous master classes with distinguished artists including Jon Nakamatsu, Nelita True, John Perry, Frederic Moyer, Carl Blake, and Katherine Chi.

Jeremiah was an adjudicator at the MTAC Sonata Contest 2019 (Contra Costa branch). He was involved in the audition selection process for Las Positas College's production of Newsies. Jeremiah is the winner of the Earl R. and Marilyn Ann Kruschke Prize in Piano Performance, held at California State University, Chico. Jeremiah performed the Mozart Concerto No. 20, K. 466 with the Shasta Symphony Orchestra in Redding, CA in October 2012, and the first movement of the Grieg piano concerto with the UC Davis Summer Symphony in September 2015. He gave multiple solo recitals at Redding, CA’s Old City Hall (in 2016, 2011, 2009, and 2006), as part of the Performing Arts Society's monthly concert series. He also has performed at St. Paul's Towers in Oakland, CA, and San Francisco Towers. Since March 2020, when in-person concerts were halted, Jeremiah has hosted Framel Live, a weekly Youtube show including jazz and classical piano. He attended a Steinway Spirio training session.

As an experienced accompanist, Jeremiah has worked for the Mondavi National Young Artist Competition, the Westside Performing Arts Company, and regularly for recitals at UC Davis. In summer 2022, Jeremiah played for a Livermore Valley Opera outreach event and for Schola Cantorum singers in a Faure Requiem sing-along. In summer 2021, Jeremiah accompanied the cabaret "For The First Time In Forever" at Las Positas College. In Spring 2011, Jeremiah was the accompanist for the Simpson Chorale, one of the choral groups of Simpson University that performs on campus and on tours. He also accompanied in June 2011 a vocal masterclass with Franc D'Ambrosio, Broadway star and student of Pavarotti. At UCD, Jeremiah was the assistant conductor for the University Chorus (Winter 2018 and Spring 2018). From 2017-2018, Jeremiah coordinated the performance salon series at UC Davis. From 2009-2019, he was an accompanist for the Shasta Vocal Institute, collaborating with singers in performances of art songs and arias, as well as scenes of operas including The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, La Traviata by Verdi, The Magic Flute by Mozart, Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, I Puritani by Bellini, and West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. Jeremiah has also accompanied the Shasta College Concert and Chamber Choirs.

In Spring and Fall 2013, Jeremiah was a continuo player for the University Baroque Ensemble at UC Berkeley, as well as a keyboardist for the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. Jeremiah has performed chamber music with the Sundial Music Project, at Shasta College, and in the UCB Baroque Ensemble.

Jeremiah studied piano with Ronald Cole, Dr. Alexander Tutunov, and Jacqueline Chew. He studied harpsichord with Katherine Heater and Davitt Moroney. At Shasta College, he received the Zinn Award. Jeremiah holds an A.A. in Music from Shasta College, a B.A. in Music with Highest Distinction from UC Berkeley, and a M.A. in Music from UC Davis. At his graduation from UC Berkeley, Jeremiah received the Departmental Citation in Music and the Matthew William Fisher Memorial Prize in Music. For his research into the solo piano works of Franz Schubert, he also was a recipient of the 2014 Charlene Conrad Liebau Library Prize for Undergraduate Research.

Jeremiah holds a Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, Davis, where his research interests included cultural diplomacy and music, Mexican popular song, and nature musicology. His dissertation focuses on musical cosmopolitanism in early-twentieth-century Spain. He resides in El Sobrante, CA.

Conference presentations:

"'Pan-American Union, Hollywood, and Hemispheric Solidarity': Mexican and Spanish Popular Song during the Good Neighbor Policy." 2016 Annual Meeting of the Northern California Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, University of San Francisco

Teaching assistant positions held at the University of California, Davis:

Music 2 - Keyboard Competence (Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Spring 2017)
Music 10 - Introduction to Musical Literature (Spring 2016, Fall 2018)
Music 116 - Music of the Beatles (Spring 2018)
Music 144 - University Chorus (Winter 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018)