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Sound of Charlotte Blog

A Composer to Know: Jessica Meyer


As a critically acclaimed violist and passionate educator, New York-based artist Jessica Meyer embarked on her composition career only seven years ago. In a recent interview for the record label Bright Shiny Things she explained, "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, but once I started writing for other people in 2014, the floodgates were opened and I knew that without a doubt that was what was missing from my life."

In her solo performances, Meyer uses a single simple loop pedal to create a virtuosic orchestral experience using her viola and voice. Drawing from wide-ranging influences which include Bach, Brahms, Delta blues, Flamenco, Indian Raga, and Appalachian fiddling, Meyer's music takes audience members on a journey through joy, anxiety, anger, bliss, torment, loneliness, and passion.

Meyer's work Slow Burn had its premiere on March 18, 2018, performed by the string quintet Sybarite5. 

The piece was premiered at McCurdy's Comedy Theatre in Sarasota, Florida to accompany a dancer from the Black Diamond Burlesque Company which is essentially all you need to know in order to conjure up the appropriate amount of sass you need in order to play it effectively! 

It is also a combination of all the groovy music I like to listen to, at the heart of which is a theme that most singers wind up singing about at some point: that unrequited love that was never meant to be.


Photo: Black Diamond Burlesque Company / members of Sybarite5

Hear Jessica Meyer's Slow Burn performed by your Charlotte Symphony streamed from the Knight Theater on Saturday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. (watch through March 13)

Posted in Classics. Tagged as Classical, composer, Virtual Concerts.

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