Jesse Ayers

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Jesse Ayers (b.1951) has had his music performed across the United States, as well as in Europe, Japan, Russia and New Zealand, and has twice had his music selected by the International Society of Contemporary Music to represent the United States at the prestigious World Music Days festival (Slovenia 2003 and Warsaw 1992).

His most recent work, Jericho, a large-scale surround-sound composition for wind orchestra, choir, and narrator, was recently performed in nine cities across the southern and mid-western United States by the Wind Symphony of Concordia University River Forest under the direction of Dr. Richard Fischer. It was premiered and recorded in 2005 by the Valparaiso Univerisity Chamber Concert Band under the baton of Dr. Jeffrey Scott Doebler.

Ayers' other surround-sound work for wind orchestra, ...and they gathered on Mount Carmel, has been performed by a number of collegiate symphonic bands and has also been recorded on CD by the same Valparaiso ensemble. His work for solo tuba and synthesized tape, The Dancing King, has been performed on four continents and released on two CDs.

Dr. Ayers has been a guest composer on the campuses of California State University Bakersfield, Heidelberg College (Ohio), Valparaiso University (Indiana), Virginia Tech, and Carson-Newman College (Tennessee) and has held a fellowship at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. He was a selected composer for the 2004 Essentially Choral Reading Sessions in Minneapolis with conductor Philip Brunell, and his music has been performed at two International Tuba-Euphonium Conferences (Sapporo, Japan, and Lexington, KY), and an MENC national convention (New Orleans).

Elliot Schwartz writing in Perspectives of New Music says Ayers' music is "appealing in its virtuosity, playfulness, and drive." Percussive Notes says, "Give Jesse Ayers an A+ for imagination." CIDA News says, "The Ayers' piece...is particularly stirring, wonderfully transporting and imaginative." The Instrumentalist comments "this spirited composition sparkles," and Mark Nelson writing in TUBA Journal describes Ayers' music as having "intense rhythmic drive and beautiful melodic writing, sophisticated in texture and pleasurable to listen to."

Born in East Tennessee, Ayers began composing around age 14. While still in high school, he was invited by the legendary W. J. Julian to conduct his first composition for concert band with the University of Tennessee Wind Ensemble. Ayers later earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Composition from the University of Tennessee where he studied composition with David Van Vactor, John Anthony Lennon, Guy Bachman, and Allen Johnson; choral conducting with Donald Neuen; and percussion with F. Michael Combs. He also holds the the Doctorate of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Kentucky where he studied composition with Joseph Baber and aural skills pedagogy with Kate Covington. He has had master classes with composers Karel Husa, Norman Dello Joio, and Vaclav Nelhybel.

Ayers is currently a Professor of Music at Malone College where he received the 2001 Distinguished Faculty Award for Scholarship/Creative Expression. He has received 15 awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and grants from Meet the Composer and the American Music Center.