Calvin Evans Jr.

Calvin Evans Jr. is a composer and musicologist based in Northern Virginia. In music composition, he specializes in chamber music, jazz, and music for visual media. He has composed music for multiple films, television episodes, and escape room experiences across America. He was the 1st prize recipient of the 2025 Philip Slates Memorial Competition hosted by the Southeastern Composers League. In scholarship, his interests focus on the forgotten and undiscovered history of African American film composers and their impact on the profession of film music composition. His dissertation was written on the film scoring career of Quincy Jones.

His research has been presented at multiple academic conferences including the Music and the Moving Image Conference (New York University) and the North American Video Game Music Conference (Stetson University). He won the 2025 “3 Minute Thesis” competition at George Mason University and represented his university at the regional competition at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

He is an honors graduate of Hampton University with a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in teaching. He also holds a master's degree in fine arts with a concentration in Film Music Composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC, where he studied composition under Dr. Christopher Heckman. Calvin graduated with a Doctorate in Music Composition from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he studied composition under Mark Camphouse and Dr. Robert Gillam. He was awarded the 2021 Presidential Scholarship at George Mason University which supported him for several years as he investigated the forgotten history of black film composers.