Newton Wayland

By 1984, Wayland was guest-conducting up to 20 symphony concerts per year. During this period, he had these requirements for his shows: first, that the concert be audience-oriented; second, to program a variety of somewhat different or unusual works, along with familiar ones; third, the concert had to be challenging for the orchestra. Wayland also wanted to challenge himself. “I don’t want to rest on my laurels and do the same old stuff I know works.” He said “live performance can be visual and exciting – an event; a festive occasion, in a variety of ways: improvised now happenings, audience clap-alongs and sing-alongs.”

In 1980, at age 36, Wayland was one of the conductors in the running to replace Fiedler. Others included Mitch Miller, Henry Mancini, Franz Allers, John Williams, Frederick Fennell, Michael Sasson, John Mauceri, John Lanchbery and Norman Lyden. John Williams was ultimately selected.

In 1978, Wayland was one of a select handful of people in consideration to succeed the longtime Boston Pops Conductor, Arthur Fieldler.

While a student at the New England Conservatory, Wayland was the host of the educational TV show “Performance.” After the Conservatory, Wayland was a Rockefeller Artist-in Residence at WGBH-TV in Boston. He was musical director of the WCVB-TV Boston series Catch a Rainbow 1977–1978. He also arranged music scores for many network television shows, including compositions and arrangements for PBS' Nova.

Wayland was the first and only music director for Zoom, the Emmy award-winning PBS children's show. He was Zoom's music director from 1971 to 1978 and wrote both the theme song “Come on and Zoom” as well as the "Send it to Zoom" address song.

A gifted pianist and harpsichordist, Wayland was the first-call keyboardist for the Boston Symphony throughout the 1960s and provided keyboards for his own performing and recording groups throughout his career. A Boston Symphony Orchestra highlight was his accompaniment of soprano Beverly Sills as the harpsichordist for the Orchestra's staged performance of the U.S. premiere of the original, 1912 version of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Ariadne Auf Naxos." It was telecast live from Symphony Hall, Boston on January 7, 1969, and released on DVD in 2006.

Wayland married American mezzo-soprano, Jan Curtis, in 1969. The couple performed together for many years before the marriage ended in divorce.

Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos [original version] (Sills, Nagy; Leinsdorf, 1969) [live Concert Version] VAI

Newton Hart Wayland was born to physicians, Helen Hart and L.C. Newton Wayland, in Santa Barbara, CA. He trained as a pianist and, when he was a teenager, formed a jazz combo and chamber group. After graduating from Santa Barbara High School, Wayland attended Harvard University. While at Harvard, he started a jazz band and soon transferred to the New England Conservatory of Music, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in Arranging (1964) and a Masters in Chamber Music (1966). He earned the Chadwick Award for contributions to the Conservatory.

During a professional musical career that began in 1963, Wayland appeared as a conductor with symphony orchestras across the United States. His programming drew from a background that included Symphonic, Operatic, Chamber Music, Jazz and Musical Comedy. Wayland's symphonic arrangements were performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and recorded with the Boston Pops.

Wayland told the Santa Barbara News-Press, “as for my own musical style, you could say I am Bartokian, Hindemithian –with a considerable dose of jazz.” In the 1960s, Wayland formed a performing group called “The Great All-American Music Machine.” The group consisted of Wayland on keyboards, Frank Nizzari (alto, soprano, baritone saxophone), Ken Wenzwll (electric bass, trumpet, trombone, fluegelhorn, flute), John Chiodini (guitar, bass, banjo), Fred Budda (percussion), Jan Curtis (Mezzo-soprano), and David Evitts (Baritone). They performed and recorded ragtime, opera, folk, pop, jazz, classical, musical comedy and even rock music, as well as Wayland's original compositions.

Newton Hart Wayland (November 5, 1940 – September 5, 2013) was an American orchestral conductor, arranger, composer and keyboardist. The product of an elite musical education, Wayland was known for his dedication to performing for the broadest possible audience.