Membership: Secretary, LICA; Amer. Music Center; Society of Fellows Amer. Academy in Rome; Marquis Who’s Who in America 2006. ASCAP
Email: jayanthonygach1@aol.com
Web Page: members.sibeliusmusic.com/jgach
Jay Anthony Gach’s instrumental concert music has been critically acclaimed as “witty, virtuosic and accessible”, “so exuberant [and] so characterful”, “a natural crowd pleaser”, “vibrant textures”, “multi-layered, wirling and propulsive”. Summarized by the composer Lukas Foss during his tenureship as conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, “his writing for orchestra is brilliant beyond words”. Mr. Gach’s compositions for the voice have been aptly characterized with the simple phrase, “such beautiful music”. The composer Hugo Weisgal wrote of him, “a composer… of extraordinary technical command and intellectual grasp of what music is all about”.
Mr. Gach’s original concert music has been performed, recorded and broadcast internationally by ensembles including the Millenium Symphony Orch./Robert Ian Winstin, St. Paul Chamber Orch./Enrique Diemecke, Brooklyn Philharmonic/Lukas Foss, American Composers Orchestra/Paul Dunkel, National Italian Youth Orchestra/Vinko Globokar, City of London Sinfonia, Haydn Chamber Orchestra of London, the Britten Sinfonia Soloists, Vox Juventus Poland, the Gregg Smith Singers, and by solo artists including British pianist Ronan Magill, American clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, Canadian cellist Soo Bae and the soprano and tenor duo Grace Hart & Enzo Citarelli. He has received commissions and awards in over thirty national and international competitions including the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Astral Foundation (Pew-Bandy) of New York and Philadelphia, Frederick P. Rose Prize, Valentino Bucchi Concorsi Internazionale, Third British Contemporary Piano Music Competition, Delta Omicron Composition Prize, Dr. J. Howland Auchincloss Society for New Music Composition Prize, New York Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood Music Center (Bruno Maderna Fellowship), National Endowment for the Arts, et al. Between 1981 and 1999 he resided and worked throughout Europe returning to New York in 2000. In the summer of 2005 his music was featured at the Dubrovnik Music Festival, the Edinburgh Arts Festival, the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the Adirondack Music Festival. Mr Gach has written and conducted many arrangements and original scores for the educational and commercial media, including: The Selfish Giant, a children’s musical; A lot a’ Nerve Naomi Grubenstein, a ‘parve’ musical comedy; Nora at the Altar Rail, a one-act opera; Legends from Bodmin Moor, a film; British Rail’s “Mind the Doors”, an advertisement; and The Hurlers, an animation film. In 2006 he was honoured at an induction ceremony as a National Patron of the Delta Omicron Music Fraternity. His biography has appeared in Marquis ‘Who’s Who in America’ since 2006.
International and National Fellowships: Dartington, England International Summer School 1991. American Academy in Rome, Italy Composition Fellowship 1984. Research Assistantship University Tubingen, Germany 1980-1. Wellesley, New Hampshire, Johnson & Bennington Colleges Composers Conferences 2001/1989/82/81.
Selected Commissions, Grants, Prizes: American Lyric Theatre’s Edgar Allan Poe Opera Project Commissions USA 20010. American Chamber Ensemble (The Ingenue & the Matinee Idol) 2009. New York Treble Singers (ELI, ELI) 2008. Concert Artists Guild/ Long Island Composers Alliance (Toccare Cielo) USA 2008. American Lyric Theatre Composer Librettist Development Program (Nora at the Altar Rail) USA 2008. Music+Culture International Piano Music Competition (A “London” Sonata) USA, 2007. Children’s Aid Society Chorus (My Letter to the World), USA 2005. Saxtet Publications Composition Competition, (Trains, Steam Whistles and….) UK 2004. Peter B. Allen Sacred Hymn Arrangement Competition USA 2004. XI International Festival of Advent and Christmas Music Prague, Czech Rep. 2003. Upbeat-Hvar International Summer School 2003, Croatia. Kathryn Thomas International Flute Composition Competition (Tre Ecloghe) 2000, UK. SPNM/Huddersfield Festival 1998, UK. Haydn Chamber Orchestra of London (Selfish Giant) 1997, UK. Oberlin College Chorale 1995 (Hashir Hashem Luchem), USA. Islington (London) International Festival 1995, UK. Third British Contemporary Piano Competition 1994, UK. American Composers Orchestra 1988, USA. Frederick P. Rose Orchestral Prize 1988 USA. St. Paul Chamber Orch. American Composers Competition 1985 USA. ASCAP Standard Awards 1988-2010, USA.
Critical Commentary: “[the saxophone quartet] requires excellent ensemble and precise articulation. It is witty, virtuosic and accessible. Gach has cleverly used the quartet to convey the title in a very original way.” Trains, Steam Whistles and Radiator Pipes, Clarinet & Saxophone Magazine, UK. 2006. “Unmistakably Ol’ Scratch at work…The piece continues in an equally virtuosic way for all the instrumentalists.” Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop, Syracuse New Times, 4/06. “Every so often I hear a piece of music which makes me stop what I am doing and simply listen.” (From the Land of TV, MENSA Newsletter, 9/03). “Finding inspiration in a Calliope’s refrain.” Calliope, New York Times 1/03. “..exuberant sonata…so characterful…could have been written especially for [the pianist].”
A “London” Sonata, SPNM New Notes 11/94. “Bravo e bravissimi…” TATTOO, La Repubblica 12/92. “Lively duets…notated precisely and popular with performers.” Six Pieces for Two Violins, Strings Magazine 7/91. “…vibrant textural transformations.” Simple Figures, NY Times 4/89. “…a natural crowd pleaser.” CHANT, New York Newsday 5/88. “The music is multi-layered, whirling and propulsive…well-scored and vividly played.” Il Ponentino, Minneapolis Star 10/85. “I believe he will make a real contribution to the music of his generation.” (composer, John Lessard). “…above all a musician, a craftsman. And there are too few of those in this world. (composer, Billy Jim Layton).
Publications & Recordings RCA Red Label, ERM Naxos, Carl Fischer, Merion Music, Theodore Presser, Classical Vocal Reprints of New York, Granta/Little Book-room, Peter B Allen Music Publishing, Saxtet Publications, SibeliusMusic.com, G7 Music.
Education Ph.D State University of New York at Stony Brook 1982; Fellow London College of Music FLCM 1993.
