Jessica Meyer, viola

With playing that is “fierce and lyrical” and works that are “other-worldly” (The Strad) and “evocative” (New York Times), Jessica is a GRAMMY–nominated violist and composer whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity.  Her first composer/performer portrait album in 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).  Past  premieres include works for the St. Lawrence String Quartet as the composer in residence at Spoleto Festival USA, CityMusic Cleveland, musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, Five Borough Songbook, Bangor Symphony as the winner of the 2nd Annual Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer’s Award, and the Argus Quartet as a winner of Chamber Music America’s Commissioning Program Award. Her first Symphonic Band piece recently premiered by the President’s Own Marine Band was a finalist in the Revelli Prize and had a NY premiere in Carnegie Hall.  Her orchestral works have been performed by the Phoenix, North Carolina, Austin, Charlotte, and Vermont Symphonies, the Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, at Tanglewood in Seiji Ozawa Hall, and all around the country as part of Carnegie Hall’s nationwide Link Up Program. This season includes the premiere of “GAEA”, a concerto for herself and orchestra, in addition to new works for the Dorian Wind Quintet, Hausmann Quartet, Hub New Music, and the Portland Youth Philharmonic in collaboration with the female vocal ensemble In Mulieribus.