News

Ohio Honors Band to Premiere Ayers' "Flashbax"

jesse — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 22:08:56 +0000

The Honors Band of the Ohio Private Colleges Instrumental Directors Association (OPCICA) willl premiere Jesse Ayers' "Flashbax" Jenuary 22, 2012. The work was commissioned by OPCICA in memory of the late Dr. William Schlacks, OPCICA's founding president and to commemorate the organization's 25th year. The honors band will be comprised of the best college musicians from across Ohio from the OPCICA member schools. Dr. Ayers will be present for the premiere.

Windiana to present Ayers' Biblical Epics Trilogy

jesse — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:33:09 +0000

The Windiana Concert Band

The Windiana Concert Band, under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Scott Doebler, will present a program on November 17, 2011, of the three large Biblical works by composer Jesse Ayers. The works to be performed are and they gathered on Mount Carmel, Jericho, and Rahab. Mezzo-soprano Beth Ray Westlund will sing the role of Rahab.

The concert will be at the Memorial Opera House, Vaparaiso, Indiana, on Novementer 17, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. local time. FOR TICKETS CALL 219-548-9137.

Ayers wins 2011 American Prize for Orchestral Compostion

jesse — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:51:32 +0000

May 16, 2011. The American Prize has announced that Jesse Ayers' The Passion of John Brown has been named winner of the 2011 American Prize for Orchestral Composition. The American Prize is a series of national non-profit competitions in the performing arts which provides reward and recognition to the finest composers, conductors and ensembles in America. Ayers' work was commissioned by the Akron Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 150th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown's raid on the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Brown was a resident of Akron. The work was premiered October 17, 2009 — 150 years to the day of Brown's raid — by the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Wilkins conducting, and Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductee Leon Bibb, narrating.

Lamont Symphony to perform Ayers 'Jericho' in Denver

jesse — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:42:28 +0000

Lawrence Golan, conductor
The Lamont Symphony Orchestra

May 26, 2011. The Lamont Symphony Orchestra, Lawrence Golan, conducting, will perform Jesse Ayers' Jericho May 26 in Denver at the Gates Concert Hall, Newman Center for the Performing Arts, 2344 East Iliff Avenue, 7:30 p.m. local time.
Jesse will be present at this performance.

Ayers' "Escapades" wins Dayton Ballet "New Music for New Dance"

jesse — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 04:46:59 +0000

Jesse Ayers' has been named one of the three winners nationwide of the Dayton Ballet's New Music for New Dance. The program matches three composers with three choreographers culminating in a series of world premiere ballet performances. His winning work, Mountain River Escapades, was selected by jury from a national call for scores. Ayers work will be choreographed by Susanne Payne and presented in five performances March 24-27. Click here for concert time details.
Click here for article in the Dayton Daily News.

Brantord Expositor: "Brilliant Fanfare"

jesse — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Philip Sarabura, conductor
Brantford Symphony Orchestra

Dec. 6, 2010. "From the brilliant opening fanfare on Joy to the World by the fresh voice of American composer Jesse Ayers, sparkling with brass and percussion...." —The Brantford (Ontario) Expositor.

"Your Fanfare is fabulous ... a great way to start off the program with lots of energy." —Philip Sarabura, Music Director, Brantford Symphony Orchestra

Jesse Ayers Awarded MacDowell Fellowship

jesse — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:04:13 +0000

Jesse in front of his studio at the MacDowell Colony

September 2010. The MacDowell Colony has announced that composer Jesse Ayers has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship for the Fall of 2010. The fellowship includes a residency at the 450 acre wooded site in New Hampshire.

Past fellows incude Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Thornton Wilder, James Baldwin, Willa Cather, and Dubose and Dorothy Heyward.

According to the the MacDowell Colony web site, the colony's mission is to "nurture the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which to produce enduring works of the imagination."

Composer John White: "Knocked out by Ayers' JERICHO"

jesse — Mon, 31 May 2010 02:47:30 +0000

May 2010. "We heard Jericho this morning [at the concert in Denver] and my wife and I were both knocked out by it! Great! Congratulations! We enjoyed the audience participation, but the music stands on its own, even without that. There were children there too, as young as kindergarten age, and they enjoyed it too! Your command of the instrumentation is very impressive."

   —Dr. John White, composer
      University of Vienna Distinguished Chair in Humanities
      Professor of Music Emeritus, University of Florida

Click to hear excerpt from JERICHO

Terry Treuden: "Ayers' JERICHO hit of the tour"

jesse — Sat, 22 May 2010 04:00:00 +0000

May 2010. "I have found Jericho to be one of the most effective pieces I have ever had the pleasure to conduct. There is no doubt it makes a lasting impression on the audience. Jericho was "the hit" of the program whenever we performed it. People LOVED it. The audience just kept talking about your piece after our performances." —Prof. Terry Treuden, Director of Instrumental Music, Wisconsin Lutheran College.

Wisconsin Lutheran Concert Band performs Ayers' JERICHO in 4 states

jesse — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:00:00 +0000

May 2010. The Concert Band of the Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under the direction of Dr. Terry Treuden, will be performing Jesse Ayers' Jericho May 7 in Milwaukee,WI; May 17 in St. Paul, MN; May 19 at Black Hills State University in North Dakota; and May 21 in Denver, CO.

The 16-minute theater-piece employs narrator, surround-sound placement of the musicians, and unorthodox audience participation.

Jericho_excerpt.mp3

David Daniels: Ayers' JOHN BROWN piece "an amazing work"

jesse — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

David Daniels

March 11, 2010. "[I have been] listening to [The Passion of John Brown] with score in hand. It is an amazing work, beautifully paced and orchestrated. I love it. If it weren't that I have retired from conducting, I would be figuring out a way to program it."
—David Daniels
author of Orchestral Music, A Handbook

click to listen to excerpt

Maestro Christopher Wilkins: "Ayers' JOHN BROWN piece a knock out"

jesse — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:26:52 +0000

Christopher Wilkins
Music Director, Akron Symphony Orchestra

"Jesse Ayers' The Passion of John Brown is a total knock-out. On a purely visceral level it is magnificent. The audience was overwhelmed, and their powerful response has continued unabated. I keep hearing from people how moved they were by the music, the drama, the pacing, and the haunting 'flashbacks.'

"Just as remarkable was the reaction of our educational audiences. At first, I was reluctant to program The Passion of John Brown in its entirety for middle schoolers, unsure whether it could hold their attention for 19 minutes. But as it turned out, they were perfectly rapt, nobody moved! They were as quiet as any adult audience. Teacher surveys have come back to us now - all ten out of ten.

"Ayers had artfully achieved many things at once: he has covered a crucial chapter in American history in a clear and memorable way. He has brought tension and drama to the vexing questions of slavery, abolition, and armed resistance. And he has added to the history books something only music can: he's given John Brown flesh and blood. Ayers portrays both the everyday qualities of father, husband, and citizen, and the outsized passions that emboldened Brown in the most extraordinary ways. We hear in Ayers' piece Brown's authentic voice."

Click to listen to excerpt

Akron Symphony Orch. premieres Ayers' THE PASSION OF JOHN BROWN

jesse — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Jesse Ayers' The Passion of John Brown for orchestra and narrator, premiered October 17, 2009, performed by the Akron Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Christopher Wilkins with Broadcasters' Hall of Fame inductee Leon Bibb narrating.

The 19-minute work was commissioned by the orchestra in observance of the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry which helped spark the American Civil War.

Brown lived in the Akron area for many years and is among its most famous citizens.

The concert date was the exact anniversary of the Harper's Ferry raid.

Narrator Leon Bibb, Jesse Ayers, Conductor Christopher Wilkins
The Akron Symphony Orchestra

Vocalists Matt Clear, Dan Liebman, and Andy Black
join Wilkins, Bibb, Ayers, and the orchestra on stage

Maestro Wilkins conceived the idea of commissioning a narrated work about Brown and suggested the marvelous, double-entendre title.

John Brown died a controversial figure, demonized by some, admired by others. Ayers' work tells John Brown's story, the good and the bad, through Brown's own words, as well as the words of two of Brown's surviving offspring, Brown's friend abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who witnessed Brown's hanging, and the widow of a man Brown ordered killed. It also quotes John Brown's favorite hymn, Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow, and uses musical material from the hymn as symbolic bugle calls echoed by surround-sound trumpets.

Concordia Wind Orchestra performs Ayers' MOUNT CARMEL on tour

jesse — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0000

The Concordia University-Irvine Wind Orchestra
Jeff Held, conductor

October 16-31, 2009. The Concordia Wind Orchestra from Irvine, California, under the direction of Jeff Held, will be performing Jesse Ayers' ...and they gathered on Mount Carmel October 16 in Houston, October 18 in Austin, and October 31 in Irvine, California.

The 20-minute, three-movement work was the first of Ayers' "surround-sound" works, with the brass split into two choirs on each side of the audience, two alto saxophones in opposite corners of the rear or balcony, and a few more players behind the audience with unusual instruments.

Click to listen to excerpt

Ayers' WALDSTEIN EXPRESS performed in Europe

jesse — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:00:00 +0000

May 14, 2009. Jesse Ayers' Waldstein Express for 2-pianos 8-hands was performed on the opening concert of the Slobomir International Music Competition in Bijeljina, Repubic of Srpska. The work was performed by students of Professor Dubravka Jovicic, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty, Belgrade, Serbia.

There were five students who wanted to perform this piece, so to add to the humor of the piece, the fifth player meanders in as though he is a passerby, and rotates into the piece. What enthusiasm in this performance!

The work is based on the opening two measures of Beethoven's Sonata No. 21 in C major "Waldstein" and also briefly quotes Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Bach's Prelude in C major from the WTC, plus a little Gershwin and Jerry Lee Lewis.