August 2026
Meet Trent Pomeroy
Our own Trent Pomeroy is performing in the Ghostlight Productions presentation of Titanic (music and lyrics by Maury Yeston). Opening Friday, July 31, the show features Trent as Isidor Straus, the American politician and businessman (co-owner of Macy’s Department Store) who, with his wife Ida, perished on the night of April 14, 1912 when the RMS Titanic – then on its maiden voyage – struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.
Trent is particularly excited about this role. “Beyond the simply gorgeous music,” he said, “this is a completely different sort of part from what I’ve done in the past. While roles like Beadle Bamford (Sweeney Todd) or Daddy Warbucks (Annie) are complex and nuanced in their own way, they are at heart caricatures. Isidor was an actual human being, and this role is a demanding portrayal of genuine human emotions.” The musical runs from July 31 through August 9 at the Port Angeles High School auditorium.
Primarily a pianist and composer, Trent graduated from California State University at Fullerton with a degree in musical composition in 1983. He didn’t really begin singing until about twenty-five years ago, around the time he recorded three CDs. He recorded the first, Rain Music, a compilation of his piano compositions, in 1996. He completed Heritage, a similar instrumental compilation, in 2005. The next year, he produced Simply Learning, a collection of spiritual songs – some covers and some his own.
Trent was an elementary school teacher, mostly 4th grade, until his retirement in 2021. Over the years, he taught in Long Beach California, Lake Stevens Washington, and locally in Port Angeles. “I was never a great student myself,” he confided. “But I think that helped me be more tolerant and more flexible in my teaching, particularly when it came to my kids with academic challenges.” Trent continues to give back to the community through his volunteer work with Rotary and other groups.
Trent joined Peninsula Singers in the fall of 2007, singing alternately first and second tenor. Among his favorite works to sing was the Bach St. Matthew Passion. “I was particularly moved by the very complex pieces interspersed with the choral hymns.” Another of his favorites was the concert version of Menotti’s Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors. Trent sang the role of Caspar, one of the three kings, falling in love with the piece his wife Pat had performed during her high school years. This past May, one work stood out for him from Peninsula Singers’ performance Unbound! It was Eric Whitacre’s setting of Margaret Wise Brown’s classic children’s book Goodnight Moon. “The book’s an important family touchstone, and I was fascinated by how well he [Whitacre] captured its spirit in the music.”
Trent is an inveterate punster and wanted to emphasize how personally fulfilling the role of Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd was to him. “I had always wanted to be one of the Beadles,” he quipped. Alas, it doesn’t get any better than that.