About tom trenney

Composer, conductor, organist, preacher, and teacher Tom Trenney has been blessed to serve as Minister of Music to First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, since 2009. In 2019, he was invited to become Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Nebraska Wesleyan University where he now holds the Susan Sehnert Stuart Professorship in Choral Music. Tom’s choirs have been honored to perform for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and they have been award winners in the American Prize for choral ensembles. In 2023, Tom was honored with the Raabe Prize for Choral Composition from the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and in 2024, Tom was named the Nebraska Music Education Association's Music Educator of the Year.

Tom has been a featured performer at churches, colleges, and concert halls across the country including Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Kansas City’s Kauffman Center, D.C.'s Kennedy Center, and NYC's Carnegie Hall. His choral compositions are published by Augsburg Fortress, Beckenhorst Press, Choristers Guild, E.C. Schirmer/Galaxy, Gentry, Morningstar, Musicspoke, Pavane, and G. Schirmer.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music, Tom is grateful for the inspiration of his teachers and mentors – especially Anton Armstrong, David Davidson, Craig Hella Johnson, (Mister) Fred Rogers, William Weinert, Anne Wilson and Todd Wilson.

EVENTS

2026

September 25-27: Composer/Choral Festival (including performance of Love's Lantern), First Presbyterian, Spartanburg, SC

October 24: Nebraska Wesleyan University Music Showcase Concert with University Choir, NWU Rogers Center for Fine Arts, Lincoln, NE

November 13-15: Composer/Choral Residency (including performance of Love's Lantern), Trinity United Methodist Church, Birmingham, AL

November 19: Performance with Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir at Nebraska Music Education Association Conference, Saint Paul United Methodist, Lincoln, NE

November 29: Handel's Messiah Community Sing with Abendmusik at First-Plymouth Church, Lincoln, NE

December 6: With the Angels, Let Us Sing: Christmas with Wesleyan at First United Methodist, Lincoln, NE

December 13: All Out of Darkness We Have Light: Christmas with Abendmusik at First-Plymouth Church, Lincoln, NE

December 31: Last Blast with the Plymouth Brass, First-Plymouth Church, Lincoln, NE

2027

January 8: Hymn Festival at Trinity Lutheran, Reading, PA

January 30: Choral Tune-Up with National Lutheran Choir at Roseville Lutheran, Roseville, MN

January 30: Hymn Festival at St. Andrew's Lutheran, Mahtomedi, MN

February 4-5, 2027: Nebraska Wesleyan University Honors Choir Festival (with Moira Smiley), Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, NE

February 12-13: Sacred Music Festival, St. Simons United Methodist Church, St. Simons Island, GA

February 22: Abendmusik Youth Masterwork's Festival: Robert Ray's Gospel Mass, First-Plymouth Church, Lincoln, NE

March 6-7: Composer/Choral Festival, First Congregational, Palo Alto, CA

March 13-14: Composer/ Choral Festival, First Congregational, Sarasota, FL

April 4: Composer/Choral Festival (including a performance of Love's Lantern), First Presbyterian Church, Lancaster, OH

April 9: Runestad's "A Silence Haunts Me" with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra, Lied Center, Lincoln, NE

April 25: We Will Rise with Plymouth Choir and Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir (including a performance of Choral Suite from Considering Matthew Shepard and Love's Lantern), First-Plymouth Church, Lincoln, NE

April 26: Nebraska Wesleyan University Big Sing!, NWU's Rogers Center for Fine Arts, Lincoln, NE

April 30-May 1: Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra, First-Plymouth Church, Lincoln, NE

May 10: Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir at First Presbyterian Church, Evansville, IN

May 11: Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir at First Presbyterian Church, Lexington, KY

May 12: Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir at Christ Church Cathedral, Cincinnati, OH

May 13: Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir at Christ United Methodist Church, Louisville, KY

May 14: Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir at First Presbyterian Church, Kirkwood, MO

May 15: Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir at Village Presbyterian Church, Mission, KS

June 18: Compelling Preaching Conference at Hastings College, Hastings, NE

TT conducting at Abendmusik reunion color.jpg

Conductor

Composer

Love's Lantern is a moving concert work that traces a powerful spiritual journey from despair to hope, fear to love, and darkness to light. Weaving together scripture, the beloved hymn Children of the Heavenly Father, and Joyce Kilmer's poem Love's Lantern, the work begins with honest cries of longing before blossoming into a message of healing, faith, and God's unwavering presence. Richly expressive and deeply uplifting, it culminates in the triumphant assurance: "I will make a way in the wilderness." An inspiring choice for concerts centered on hope, resilience, and the enduring light of God's love. Click to purchase.