photo of Jesse Ayers

JESSE AYERS is winner of the 2011 American Prize for Orchestral Composition, co-winner of the 2011 Dayton Ballet 'New Music for New Dance,' and a 2010 MacDowell Fellowship.  His music has been performed in Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, and over 100 U.S. cities.  Much of Ayers' music is scored for large, "surround-sound" forces and explores the intersection of the spiritual and natural worlds and the redemptive intervention of a very real God in the affairs of the human race.

 

Two Ayers Works Finalists for The American Prize

seal of the American Prize

May 23, 2013.  The American Prize has announced that two works by composer Jesse Ayers have advanced to the finals round of the American Prize in Composition—Band Division. Seven works in all nationally are finalists in this division.

Ayers was the winner of the first American Prize for Orchestral Composition in 2010 for his work The Passion of John Brown. This is the first year the American Prize has offered an award for concert band composition.

Ayers' "Rahab" Wins Boston Metro Opera Award

February 13, 2013.  The Boston Metro Opera has announced that "Rahab" by composer/librettist Jesse Ayers has won the BMO's Concert Award.  "Rahab" is a one-woman, surround-sound concert story for mezzo soprano and symphonic winds or orchestra.  It tells the Old Testament story of Rahab, a prostitute in ancient Jericho, who along with her ralatives, were the only survivors of the famed battle of Jericho.  Boston Metro Opera will present "Rahab" sometime this coming season.