10 Questions with Jessica Meyer

1. Where did you grow up?
   Bay Shore, NY (Long Island)

2. What made you realize that music was your path?
   I was playing viola in 5th grade string orchestra and we were performing "Memory" from the Musical Cats. I had goosebumps all over and knew from that moment that music was what I had to do for the rest of my life.

3. How would you describe the music that you typically perform/create?
   I perform all kinds of music as a violist - from contemporary classical, Baroque on my period instrument, to jazz/rock/soul/latin/world.  The music that I write tends to combine different aspects of all kinds of music I play...which depends on both what I think would best express the inspiration for the piece and what plays to the strengths of the ensemble/person I am writing for.

4. Who are your biggest musical influences?
   Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Nina Simone, Arvo Pärt

5. What makes your music unique?
   I write with emotions as my guide in a way that explores the many colors each instrument can make, while also using strategies that are found in both musics old and new, to create a visceral experience for the listener.

6. Has there been one particular moment in your musical career that you're most proud of?Getting this album out, having it so well received, and performing an evening of my works at Miller Theatre a few weeks ago is so far the best “moment” so far!

7. What made you want to eventually write your own music?
   I wrote a lot as a child, in the sense that I was improvising music at the piano every chance I got.  It was my way of processing all the things I was feeling while trying to understand how to relate to others.
   
   In High School I spent a lot of time writing for computer MIDI set-ups, which led me to write a mini-concerto for me and computer.  Upon getting into Juilliard, I stopped writing in order to be focused on getting an orchestra job as a violist (which is what I thought I wanted at the time).
   
   After many, many years of playing new music and helping kids create their own music, I could not ignore the nagging feeling I had that I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing.
   
   I started to write for myself and loop pedal as a way to kickstart my creativity, but once I started writing for other people in 2014 the floodgates were opened and I knew without a doubt that was what was missing from my life.

8. What is your favorite thing about your new album? 
   My colleagues playing my music with the level of intensity that is needed to express how I imagined it.

9. What is the impetus behind Ring Out and why do you feel compelled to release this into the universe?
   My father was an amateur blues/folk singer, and when he died he left a lot of live concert recordings.  The recording quality and mic’ing was not that great - so you really could not get a sense of the performer he really was.  Fortunately, several years before his death he did release once album with a group, and it sounds amazing. It truly captured all the different sides of him as a performer because of the studio environment.
   
   Despite how differently we consume and sell recordings nowadays, the act itself of making an album and presenting the music exactly how you intended it is still indeed a priceless endeavor.  I felt the need to finally have a debut album as a composer while still being represented as a performer.

10. What’s the next thing for you?
    I will be the Composer in Residence at Spoleto USA where I will write a work for the St. Lawrence String Quartet in honor of their 30th Anniversary (and their 25th Anniversary at Spoleto), and I am writing a concerto for myself to be premiered in June in Miller Theatre with the Orchestra of the League of Composers (!).
    
    Very glad the album promo is done so I can get to work!