LOOKING FORWARD

Premieres:

Project for violin and piano

March 20th, 2020     escapeVelocity    Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg (FL)

Feat. Giancarlo Latta (violin) & Robert Fleitz (piano)

Project for solo piano and drum machine

May 16, 2020     New Gallery Concert Series Commission     Boston, MA

Feat. Sarah Bob (piano)

And when I sit still, there’s a heart and a brain, for contrabass and piano

Spring 2020 TBA     Cincinnati Soundbox Solo Concert    Cincinnati, OH

Feat. Kate Alexandra (bass) Christina Lalog Seal (piano)

 

Panel 1

CURRENT PROJECTS

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PREMIERES:

NYPhil Chamber Orchestra Project

April 18th, 2020

DAVID GEFFEN HALL, LINCOLN CENTER

Panel 2

LOOKING BACK

Watch and listen to Escape Velocity perform my piano+violin work Duo, live at Timucua (Dec 2018).

  • December 9th, 2018     Escape Velocity    Orlando, Florida
  • April 27th, 2018   Roxbury Community College,   MA

Check it out! Latest performance of my piece, BEAR, originally commissioned by Castle of our Skins. Best yet. Features the incredible Rex Mobley on vocals, with Francesca McNeeley chopping like a pro on the cello and Julia Carey just murdering on the piano (in the best way possible). I’m incredibly grateful, and continuously inspired by you all. Reginald Mobley (all of them) do such a superb job of capturing the complex soup of emotions that makes this piece.

Videography by Dave Jamrog. Performance as part of the Nigra Sum Sed Formosa collaboration between Castle of our Skins and the Handel and Haydn Society [April 27th, 3pm at Roxbury Community College]

Check out the reviews!

The Boston Globe

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2018/05/28/castle-our-skins-celebrates-music-black-women/Di67IB5rVlDJBqra1zubvL/story.html

The Boston Musical Intelligencer 

https://www.classical-scene.com/2018/05/29/aint-i-a-woman/

Here is a recording from Loon Lake Live Festival two years ago of my piece “On Shapes and Figures”. The memory of that trip to upstate NY, hearing my piece from the crowded corner of a tiny rustic synagogue…it’s very dear to me. I will forever be grateful for my time up in Loon Lake.

 

Panel 3

CREATIVE EDU & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

I manage the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composer’s program alongside the brilliance and magic that is Program Founder and Director, Jon Deak.

About the Very Young Composers Program:

The New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers (VYC) was developed by noted composer and former Associate Principal Bass, Jon Deak, to answer the question, “what is children’s music?” Working with Philharmonic Teaching Artists, public school children, with limited musical background learn how to compose their very own music for Philharmonic musicians to play – sometimes for the full orchestra. Students make every compositional decision, with Teaching Artists serving as mentors and scribes. VYC demonstrates children’s innate creativity while also providing a glimpse at the future of orchestral music.

 

 

 

 

Panel 4

BIO

 

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Jessica Mays is a composer, pianist, and singer-songwriter currently residing in New York City.

Born in Denver, CO, she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition and Theory from the University of Denver. She holds a Master’s of Music Composition from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.

Mays’ music has been performed by numerous soloists and ensembles both locally and abroad, including the Playground Ensemble, Nebula Ensemble, the Lamont Symphony Orchestra, Montreal’s’ Ensemble Paramirabo, Ensemble Lunatik, Thin Edge New Music Collective, and many others. Her music was featured on Loon Lake Live’s 20th season in New York (2016). Mays was a featured composer and performer for the Cluster Music Festival 2013 installment titled “POP + NOISE.” She was also selected as a guest composer for The Labo de musique contemporaine de Montréal (2013). She has written arrangements for both large and small forces on variety of projects with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Her music has received praise from such major publications as the Boston Globe and the Boston Musical Intelligencer.

Mays currently manages the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers (VYC) program alongside VYC Founder and Artistic Director, Jon Deak.