He was an orchestral conductor, pianist, harpsichordist and arranger born Newton Hart Wayland born in Santa Barbara, California who became an arranger and pianist for Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops as well as a keyboard musician for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In 1977 he made his conducting debut with the Boston Pops and after the Boston Symphony Orchestra highlighted him to other orchestras he quickly became a sought after Pops conductor.
He was a resident and guest conductor for orchestras that include the Oakland Symphony Pops, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Denver Symphony Pops, Rochester Pops, The Houston Pops and The Greater Hoople Area Off-Season Philharmonic, with whom he appeared on the P.D.Q Bach Grammy nomination Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities for “Best Comedy” release.
Also making his name as an arranger he built a library of his own and commissioned arrangements which cover a wide range of orchestral and big band music in genres ranging from film and TV to light classical.
He had conducting tributes to music by Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and The Beatles, he has also appeared with the late great Ray Charles.
He died at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara in 2013 when he was 72 years oldd.
Rochester Pops recordings
The Minstrel Boy (Thomas Moore/Traditional/Leroy Anderson)
Pro-Arte CDD-454 (CD: Classical Jukebox: More Favourites of Leroy Anderson)
Conductor – Newton Wayland
Sources:
- https://www.independent.com/obits/2013/10/01/newton-wayland/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_Wayland
- http://www.mola-inc.org/Marcato/Marcato%20Back%20Issues/XVII/Marcato%20XVII-4%20(June%202003).pdf
- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6D61438F93AA15751C1A966958260
- http://www.telarc.com/Classical/title.asp?sku=CD-80239
- http://www.showmag.com/music/music004.html