Jesse Ayers wins 8th finalist award from American Prize
June 2023. Jesse Ayers has been named a finalist for the American Prize in Composition for his orchestral work SHINKANSEN. This is Ayers eighth finalist award from The American Prize since he won the inaugural American Prize in Composition in 2011.
Jesse Ayers Receives Governor’s Award for Ohio’s Outstanding Individual Artist
January 2020. The Ohio Arts Council has announced that composer Jesse Ayers has been named the recipient of the Governor’s Award for an Individual Artist for 2020.
The Governor’s Awards “showcase and celebrate exceptional Ohio artists, arts organizations, arts leaders and patrons, and business support for the arts. Award recipients will be presented with the only arts award in the state that is conferred by the governor.”
Donna S. Collins, Executive Director of the Ohio Arts Council, says, “The Governor’s Awards are a special opportunity to celebrate Ohioans who exemplify what it means to make a difference through the power of the arts.”
Each year, the public is invited to nominate individuals and organizations. Recipients are selected by the Governor’s Awards Selection Committee, composed of six Ohio Arts Council (OAC) board members and three members selected by the Ohio Citizens for the Arts (OCA) Foundation, who recommend winners after reviewing nominations and letters of support submitted by individuals and organizations across Ohio.
“I am humbled to receive this award,” says Ayers, “and grateful that our Governor, legislators, arts patrons, and good people of Ohio recognize the transformative power of the arts in our communities. In that sense, I receive this award on behalf of all Ohioans working to create and promote the arts.”
Ayers continues, “I have been very fortunate and so blessed over my career to have had the opportunity to work with so many outstanding musicians, both professionals and students, all wonderful human beings, who have been diligent to perform my music at a high level. Composing is done in solitary confinement, locked away with pencil and staff paper. But the performance of the resulting music is marvelously collaborative, when I get to work side-by-side with 50, 100, even 200 highly skilled musicians who come together, in community, to focus on a single goal, that of creating a meaningful, perhaps life-altering, experience for their fellow human beings in the audience. On many occasions, I have experienced the deep gratification of seeing audience members respond to my music with profound, heart-felt emotion, thanks to the dedication, professionalism, and musicianship of the conductors and performers who have brought my music to life in the concert hall.”
Ayers was the winner of the inaugural American Prize for Composition in 2011 for his work The Passion of John Brown for orchestra and narrator, commissioned by Christopher Wilkins and Akron Symphony; winner of the 2016 Opera Kansas Zepick Modern Opera Composition Competition for his two-woman, one-act opera, Beneath Suspicion, commissioned by Soprani Compagni, and co-winner of the 2011 Dayton Ballet “New Music for New Dance” competition for his works Dance of the Mountain Raindrops and Tubing the Townsend ‘Y’.
Jesse Ayers OhioMTA
Composer of the Year
January 22, 2019. by Amber Balash
Accolades are nothing new to Malone University’s well-respected and accomplished Professor of Music Jesse Ayers, whose compositions have been performed in nearly a dozen countries and more than 100 U.S. cities.
Yet being named the Ohio Music Teachers 2019 Commissioned Composer of the Year felt particularly special.
“I am humbled and excited to receive this honor from Ohio’s oldest organization of professional music teachers,” Ayers said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of composing a new piece worthy of one of Ohio’s most important music associations.”
As the Commissioned Composer of the Year, Ayers will create a new work [the now-completed Shinkansen for Piano 4-Hands] to be premiered at the 2019 OhioMTA state conference. Ohio MTA was founded in 1879 and is affiliated with the Music Teachers National Association, founded in 1876 and the nation’s oldest organization of professional music teachers.
Podcast Interview with Ayers
Guest Jesse Ayers and hosts Tarik Ghiradella and Amy Scurria discuss Ayers’ one-act opera Beneath Suspicion and his surround-sound concert story Jericho.
Ayers-Myricks Finalists for American Prize, Awarded Special Judges Citation
May 2018. Jesse Ayers and Charles Myricks, Jr., have been named Finalists for the 2017-18 American Prize for Composition, and awarded a Special Judges Citation for “Best Use of Musical Material from Another Source” for their work for orchestra and chorus, THERE’S A STIRRIN’ IN THE WATER. This is the seventh time a work by Ayers has been among the finalists for the American Prize. In 2011, Ayers won the inaugural American Prize for Orchestral Composition for his work THE PASSION OF JOHN BROWN.
Stirrin’ was premiered by the Akron Symphony & Chorus in November 2016, under the baton of Christopher Wilkins, and has since received performances by several orchestras around the country.
Jesse Ayers’ Beneath Suspicion named Finalist Honorable Mention 2017-18 American Prize
May 2018. Jesse Ayers has been named a Finalist Honorable Mention for the American Prize in Composition in the Opera-Theater Division for his work BENEATH SUSPICION for two sopranos, violin, and piano. This is the sixth time a work by Ayers has been among the finalists of the American Prize since he won the inaugural American Prize for Orchestral Composition in 2011 for his work THE PASSION OF JOHN BROWN.
Beneath Suspicion is based on a true, little-known story of two daring, American women who played on prevailing gender and racial stereotypes to fight slavery by spying for the Union during the Civil War. The work was commissioned by Soprani Compagni.
The American Prize in Composition recognizes and rewards the best composers in America of new works for orchestra, chorus, concert band, chamber ensemble or theater that have been publicly performed.
Akron Symphony premieres Ayers-Myricks’ There’s A Stirrin’ in the Water
Jesse Ayers and Charles Myricks, Jr. new work for orchestra and chorus, There’s A Stirrin’ In The Water, premiered November 2016 by the Akron Symphony Orchestra, the Akron Symphony Chorus, and Akron’s Youth Excellence in the Performing Arts Workshop under the baton of ASO music director Christopher Wilkins. The 18-minute piece, was commissioned by the Akron Symphony for its “Legacy of the Spirituals” program and is a celebration of the American spiritual.
Jesse Ayers wins 5th finalist award from American Prize
November 2016. Jesse Ayers has been named a finalist for the American Prize in Composition. His work THE FIRE OF THE LIVING GOD for wind symphony is a finalist in the band division. This is Ayers fifth finalist award from The American Prize. He won the inaugural American Prize in Composition in 2011.
Jesse Ayers Wins Opera Kansas Zepick Opera Composition Prize
Opera Kansas selected Jesse Ayers’ work BENEATH SUSPICION as the winner of their Opera Kansas 30th Anniversary Zepick Modern Opera Composition Prize. The work received two performances at Wichita’s gala Art Day of Giving event on April 29, 2016. The 18-minute, two-woman work is based on a true, little-known story of two daring, 19th-century American women, one a wealthy, white middle-aged aristocrat, the other a freed slave barely in her twenties, who crossed social, racial, and economic barriers to work together to fight against slavery during the American Civil War.
The work was performed by Ashley Winters in the role of Elizabeth van Lew, and Jasmine Jackson as Mary Bowser, with Sherri Pilgreen as collaborative pianist and Paul Brodene Smith as artistic and musical director.
Jesse Ayers work performed at CBDNA North Central
PRIVATE EYE PROWL was selected for performance at the 2016 Conference of College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), North Central Division, held at Iowa State University in February. The work was performed by the Luther College Concert Band, guest conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Doebler, Past-President of the Indiana Bandmasters Association, the organization which commissioned the piece for the 2014 Indiana Junior All-State Band.
Jesse Ayers receives commendation from the Ohio Senate
Jesse Ayers commissioned by Soprani Compagni
Jesse Ayers has been commissioned by Soprani Compagni to compose a new work for their “Portraits of Women” project. The work, Beneath Suspicion, a Scene from the Lives of Mary Bowser and Elizabeth Van Lew, will premiere November 14, 2015, at Indiana Wesleyan University, and is based on a the true story of two women, both passionate abolitionists, who spied for the Union in the Confederate capital of Richmond during the American Civil War.
The group commissioned the work because “soprano repertoire often depicts limited portraits of women, themed around love for her man, external beauty, and unfulfilled dreams. Soprani Compagni seeks to promote the contributions of women in our society… encouraging more women to embrace their calling and to let their (soprano) voices be heard.”
Jesse Ayers wins his 3rd & 4th finalist awards from the American Prize
July 2014. Jesse Ayers’ compositions RAHAB and JERICHO have both been named finalists for the American Prize in Composition. JERICHO is scored for surround-sound wind symphony and narrator and tells the Old Testament account of the Battle of Jericho with narration from Joshua 6. RAHAB is is scored for mezzo-soprano and surround-sound wind symphony and tells the story of the Old Testament Battle of Jericho from inside the wall through the eyes of Rahab, the great-great grandmother of King David. Ayers was the winner of the first American Prize for Orchestral Composition in 2011 for his work THE PASSION OF JOHN BROWN.
Jesse Ayers wins two finalist awards from the American Prize
Two works by composer Jesse Ayers were named finalists for the 2013 American Prize in Composition—Band Division. Seven works in all nationally made the finals list in this division, and two of the seven were composed by Ayers: JERICHO and AND THEY GATHERED ON MOUNT CARMEL.
Jesse Ayers wins 2011 American Prize for Orchestral Composition
May 2011. The American Prize has announced that Jesse Ayers’ THE PASSION OF JOHN BROWN has been named winner of the 2011 American Prize for Orchestral Composition. The American Prize is a series of national non-profit competitions in the performing arts which provides reward and recognition to the finest composers, conductors and ensembles in America. Ayers’ work was commissioned by the Akron Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 150th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown’s raid on the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Brown was a resident of Akron. The work was premiered October 17, 2009 — 150 years to the day of Brown’s raid — by the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Wilkins conducting, with Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductee Leon Bibb, narrating.
Windiana Concert Band presents Jesse Ayers “Biblical Epics Trilogy”
November 2011. The Windiana Concert Band, under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Scott Doebler, presented a program on November 17, 2011, of three major, biblically-themed works by composer Jesse Ayers. The works performed were AND THEY GATHERED ON MOUNT CARMEL, JERICHO, and RAHAB. Mezzo-soprano Beth Ray Westlund sang the role of Rahab. The concert was held at the Memorial Opera House, Valparaiso, Indiana.
Jesse Ayers’ work co-wins Dayton Ballet’s “New Music for New Dance”
Jesse Ayers has been named one of the three winners nationwide of the Dayton Ballet’s “New Music for New Dance” competition. The program matched three composers with three choreographers culminating in a series of world premiere ballet performances. His winning work, Mountain River Escapades, was selected by jury from a national call for scores. Escapades is an umbrella title for two of Ayers’ works: DANCE OF THE MOUNTAIN RAINDROPS and TUBING THE TOWNSEND “Y.”
Composer Jesse Ayers Awarded MacDowell Fellowship
September 2010. The MacDowell Colony has announced that composer Jesse Ayers has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship for the Fall of 2010. The fellowship includes a residency at the 450 acre wooded site in New Hampshire.
Past fellows include Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Thornton Wilder, James Baldwin, Willa Cather, and Dubose and Dorothy Heyward.
According to the the MacDowell Colony web site, the colony’s mission is to “nurture the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which to produce enduring works of the imagination.”
Ayers will begin work on a major, unconventional composition, RAHAB, a piece for mezzo-soprano and surround-sound wind symphony, a concert “radio drama” based on the extraordinary life of the Rahab of Jericho as recorded in Joshua 2 and 6.