Composer And Violist Jessica Meyer Announces Fall 2022 Season, Featuring World & Regional Premieres
She will present a New York premiere at Carnegie Hall, the world premiere of A Passage between Earth and Sky and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Sep. 20, 2022
Jessica Meyer is a GRAMMY-nominated violist and composer whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. Her fall season is filled with world and regional premieres, including a northeast U.S. tour of her Press On (2022) by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band, including a New York premiere at Carnegie Hall; the world premiere of A Passage between Earth and Sky (2022), performed by Meyer on viola with the Hausmann Quartet at San Diego's Maritime Museum; and the U.S. premiere of The dappled light just beyond her skin (2016) by TURNmusic. Her compositions can be heard on two new albums and their NYC release concerts this season: Claire Bryant's Whole Heart (Bright Shiny Things, September 2022), which features Meyer's Delta Sunrise (2017), and Lara St. John's She/Her/Hers (Ancalagon, September 2022), which includes her Confronting the Sky (2015). Meyer will also perform this season in Considering Matthew Shepard at Trinity Wall Street, with NOVUS NY at Carnegie Hall and Trinity Wall Street, and with the Saratoga Chamber Players.
Jessica Meyer's season opened on September 10, 2022, with a performance of Get into the NOW (2017) by the Overlook Quartet at Fort Washington Collegiate Church Gardens. On September 12, cellist Claire Bryant performed Meyer's Delta Sunrise at Manhattan's Rockwood Music Hall to celebrate the release of a new album, Whole Heart, released September 9 on Bright Shiny Things. Watch Bryant perform Delta Sunrise.
From September 21-23, 2022, the BBC's NOW Educational Concert Series will use Meyer's work, I Only Speak of the Sun (2018), in a series of performances and lectures throughout the U.K. I Only Speak of the Sun is a three-movement string trio based on an ode written by Rumi, and explores all of the colors possible for violin, viola, and cello.
Violinist Lara St. John performs works from her new album, She/Her/Hers, including Meyer's Confronting the Sky, in two shows on September 29, 2022 at The Crypt Sessions in NYC. The six-minute work for solo violin is a reflection on relationships - the ensuing ebbs and flows, their evolution, the drama that will inevitably unfold at one point or another, and the subsequent reincarnations of that particular specialness which can exist between two people. Watch St. John perform Confronting the Sky.
From October 2-31, 2022, "The President's Own" United States Marine Band will perform an extensive northeast U.S. tour of Meyer's Press On, with stops in State College, PA (Oct. 3); Fredonia, NY (Oct. 5); Hopewell Junction, NY (Oct. 9); New York, NY (Oct. 11); Springfield, MA (Oct. 16); Topsham, ME (Oct. 19); Concord, NH (Oct. 20); Ridgefield, CT (Oct. 25); and Harrisburg, PA (Oct. 28). The New York premiere of Press On takes place on October 11, 2022 at 8:00pm at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, in a celebratory free event with a varied program ranging from marches by former director John Philip Sousa, classics by composers including John Williams and Charles Ives, New York premieres by composers such as Jennifer Higdon and Kimberly Archer, a suite of beloved show tunes by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, and much more. Press On was commissioned by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band and received its world premiere at Strathmore in Maryland. The title is inspired by Meyer's discovery of composing later in her musical life, and the path of persistence in the face of adversity or uncertainty.
On October 3, 2022, TURNmusic performs the U.S. Premiere of The dappled light just beyond her skin for alto flute, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, viola, and cello at Burlington City Arts in Vermont. Premiered in 2016 at the Etchings Festival in France, the piece is a constant reminder of how people and places can pass through one's life like the wind - only to be experienced for a certain period of time.
Meyer performs alongside the Hausmann Quartet in the world premiere of her quintet, A Passage between Earth and Sky, on November 6, 2022 at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. The program also includes Haydn's Quartet No. 25 in C Major, George Walker's Lyric (from Quartet No. 1), and Peter Schulthorpe's Quartet No. 18. Of her new work, commissioned by Michael Hostetler and Erica Pascal, Meyer says, "Nature has always played a role in many of my significant memories so far. In fact, my first memory ever is posing for a photo when I was 3 years old standing next to the maple tree that served as the centerpiece of my backyard... Therefore, after meeting Michael and Erica and finding out about the life and death of their Italian Umbrella Pine 'Igor,' I had to find a way to write about it... In this piece, I wanted to weave together sounds that are evocative of Igor extending his roots into the earth, the birds who rest on his branches, his traumatic dismembering, and the fantasy of a supernatural force somehow allowing him to magically reassemble and fly up into the sky in order to find a new home."
As a violist, Meyer will also perform this season with NOVUS NY in Considering Matthew Shepard (September 15-17, 2022) and Concert at One: Voice of Crumb Part II (November 16, 2022) at Trinity Wall Street, and with pianist and conductor João Carlos Martins at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall (November 19, 2022); as well as with the Saratoga Chamber Players in Saratoga Springs, NY on December 3, 2022.
Jessica Meyer Fall 2022 Calendar
September 10, 2022
Overlook Quartet Performs Get into the NOW
Fort Washington Collegiate Church Gardens | New York, NY
Link: www.theoverlookquartet.com/concerts/ifthestarsalign
September 12, 2022
Claire Bryant Performs Delta Sunrise From New Album, Whole Heart
Rockwood Music Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.rockwoodmusichall.com/event/claire-bryant-cello-album-release-show-featuring-nadia-sirota-viola-ben-russell-violin/
September 15-17, 2022
Considering Matthew Shepard
Trinity Wall Street | New York, NY
Link: www.trinitywallstreet.org/music/fall-22-season
September 21-23, 2022
BBC NOW Educational Concert Series Includes Only Speak of the Sun
Wales | United Kingdom
September 29, 2022
Lara St. John Performs Confronting the Sky from New Album, She/Her/Hers
Church of the Intersession | New York, NY
Link: www.deathofclassical.com/concerts/she-her-hers
October 3, 2022
TURNmusic Performs the U.S. Premiere of The dappled light just beyond her skin
Burlington City Arts | Burlington, VT
Link: www.turnmusic.org
October 3, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
State College Area High School Performing Arts Center | State College, PA
Link: https://marineband.ticketleap.com/statecollegepa22/
October 5, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
Rockefeller, King Concert Hall | Fredonia, NY
Link: https://events.fredonia.edu/event/the_presidents_own_marine_band
October 9, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
John Jay Senior High School | Hopewell Junction, NY
Link: https://marineband.ticketleap.com/hopewelljunctionny22/
October 11, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band Performs New York Premiere of Press On
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2022/10/11/The-Presidents-Own-United-States-Marine-Band-0800PM
October 16, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
Springfield, MA
Link: www.spiritofspringfield.org/events
October 19, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
Orion Performing Arts Center | Topsham, ME
Link: https://marineband.ticketleap.com/topshamme22/
October 20, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
Concord High School | Concord, NH
Link: https://marineband.ticketleap.com/concordnh22/
October 25, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
Ridgefield High School, Richardson High School | Ridgefield, CT
Link: https://marineband.ticketleap.com/ridgefieldct22/
October 28, 2022
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band to Perform Press On
Jo Ann Magistro Performing Arts Center | Harrisburg, PA
Link: https://marineband.ticketleap.com/harrisburgpa22/
Nov 6, 2022
World Premiere of A Passage between Earth and Sky with the Hausmann Quartet
Maritime Museum of San Diego | San Diego, CA
Link: https://hausmannquartet.com/schedule_details.php?link_name=haydn-voyages2022-04-21-12-19-00-pm
November 16th, 2022
NOVUS NY Performs Concert at One: Voice of Crumb Part II
Trinity Wall Street | New York, NY
Link: https://trinitywallstreet.org/music/fall-22-season
November 19, 2022
João Carlos Martins Conducts NOVUS NY
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2022/11/19/Joao-Carlos-Martins-Piano-and-Conductor-with-NOVUS-NY-0700PM
December 3, 2022
Saratoga Chamber Players Performs String Trios
Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church | Saratoga Springs, NY
Link: www.saratogachamberplayers.org/js_events/piano-trios/
About Jessica Meyer
Jessica Meyer is a GRAMMY-nominated violist and composer whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. Her first composer/performer portrait album, Ring Out (Bright Shiny Things, 2019) debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart, where "knife-edge anticipation opens on to unexpected, often ecstatic musical realms, always with a personal touch and imaginatively written for the instruments" (Gramophone Magazine).
Her orchestral works have been performed by the Phoenix, North Carolina, Charlotte, and Vermont Symphonies, the Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, and all around the country as part of Carnegie Hall's nationwide Link Up Program. In 2022, she was awarded the 2nd Annual Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer's Award to write a new work for the Bangor Symphony and Chamber Music America's Commissioning Program Award to compose for the Argus Quartet. Recent recital premieres included a work for CityMusic Cleveland, musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, and for the Five Boroughs Music Festival's Five Borough Songbook.
Meyer's compositions viscerally explore the wide palette of emotionally expressive colors available to each instrument while using traditional and extended techniques inspired by her varied experiences as a contemporary and period instrumentalist. Since embarking on her composition career eight years ago, premieres have included performances by acclaimed vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth and Vox Clamantis, the St. Lawrence String Quartet as the composer in residence at Spoleto Festival USA, the American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, cellist Amanda Gookin for her Forward Music Project, Sybarite 5, NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, a work for A Far Cry commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, The Juilliard School for a project with the Historical Performance Program, and by the Lorelei Ensemble for a song cycle that received the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award from Chorus America.
As a solo performer, Meyer is internationally renowned for her use of a single simple loop pedal to create a virtuosic orchestral experience with her viola and voice. Drawing from wide-ranging influences which include Bach, Brahms, Delta blues, Flamenco, Indian Raga, and Appalachian fiddling, Meyer's music takes audience members on a journey through joy, anxiety, anger, bliss, torment, loneliness and passion. Her solo shows have been featured at iconic venues such as BAMcafé, Joe's Pub, and Symphony Space in NYC, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, in Paris at Sunset Sunside, in addition to venues in Singapore, Switzerland, Vietnam, the Emirates and beyond. At home with many different styles of music and an ardent collaborator, Meyer can regularly be seen premiering her chamber works, creating with dancer/choreographer Caroline Fermin, performing on Baroque viola, improvising with jazz musicians, or collaborating with other composer-performers.
Jessica Meyer is equally known for her inspirational work as an educator, where she empowers musicians with networking, communication, teaching, and entrepreneurial skills so they can be the best advocates for their own careers. Her workshops have been featured at The Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, for the Teaching Artists of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Manhattan School of Music, the Longy School of Music, New York University, the Chamber Music America Conference, and at various universities around the country. Meyer has conducted hundreds of workshops for students and adults for Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Caramoor, the Little Orchestra Society, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Currently, she is most passionate about getting musicians of all ages off the page to activate their own creativity, improvise, and awaken their own inner composer - which in turn makes them better performers. In addition to teaching virtual workshops, her most recent engagements have been for the Moab Music Festival, the National Youth Orchestra of Carnegie Hall, and for the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute. This past year, she launched a Teen Composer Intensive at New England Music Camp so that teens of all abilities can develop their craft, amass recordings for their portfolio, and connect with both professional and student performers. Learn more at www.jessicameyermusic.com.
Photo Credit: Dario Acosta
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