Composer
With playing that is “fierce and lyrical” and works that are “other-worldly” (The Strad) and “evocative” (New York Times), Jessica Meyer is an award-winning composer and violist whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. Meyer’s first composer/performer portrait album, Ring Out (Bright Shiny Things, 2019) debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart. Her second album, I long and seek after, is a collection of her vocal works released in March 2024 on New Focus Recordings that Musical America hailed as “gorgeously scored.”
Since the start of her composition career in 2014, at age 40, Meyer’s compositions have viscerally explored the wide palette of colors available to each instrument while combining techniques inspired by her experiences as a contemporary and period instrumentalist. Her works have been performed in venues from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center, by musicians of major institutions like the New York Philharmonic and the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as by many orchestras around the country and ensembles abroad. Her first Symphonic Band piece was commissioned and toured by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and was a finalist for the William D. Revelli Composition Contest. She has also received multiple commissioning awards from both Chamber Music America and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Premieres have included performances by acclaimed vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth and Vox Clamantis, the St. Lawrence String Quartet as the composer in residence at Spoleto Festival USA, the American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, Sandbox Percussion, HUB New Music, Dorian Wind Quintet, NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, a work for A Far Cry commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Juilliard School for a project with the Historical Performance Program, by the Lorelei Ensemble for a song cycle that received the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award from Chorus America, and her viola concerto GAEA that she premiered alongside the Orchestra of the League of Composers at Miller Theatre in NYC.
Recent premieres include a work for Metropolitan Opera tenor Paul Appleby and the Claremont Trio, a new work “Turbulent Flames” that was performed by a consortium of orchestras across the United States, and a commission for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra that opened their 2025-26 Carnegie Hall Season. This season she is the Composer in Residence of ROCO Houston, in addition to writing for the Akropolis Reed Quintet, Cantori New York, and the Katarina String Quartet.
Performer
A violist known for her expressive “bravura playing” (The Strad), Meyer is equally at home with many other styles of music and is an ardent collaborator. Jessica can regularly be seen performing on Baroque viola, improvising with jazz musicians, playing chamber music, or collaborating with other composer-performers. As a founding member of the new music collective counter)induction and a featured guest of many different ensembles, she has premiered and performed numerous solo and chamber works across many stylistic periods. Currently, she regularly performs her solo show, collaborates with individuals or ensembles for certain premieres, performs with Sybarite5, and with the Grammy-nominated NOVUS NY ensemble of Trinity Wall Street.
As a solo performer, Ms. Meyer uses a single simple loop pedal to create a virtuosic orchestral experience with her viola and voice. Drawing from wide-ranging influences, which include Bach, Brahms, Delta blues, Flamenco, Indian Raga, and Appalachian fiddling, she takes audience members on a journey through joy, anxiety, anger, bliss, torment, loneliness and passion. Her solo shows have been featured at iconic venues such as BAMcafé, Joe’s Pub, and Symphony Space in NYC; the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; Sunset Sunside in Paris; and venues in Singapore, Switzerland, Vietnam, the Emirates, and beyond. Recent seasons included the premiere of her own viola concerto, “GAEA”, with the League of Composers Orchestra, and headlining the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition at the American Viola Society Festival with a recital of her own works.
Educator
Ms. Meyer is equally known for her inspirational work as an educator. She not only teaches technique, interpretation, and mental preparation for the stage, but also empowers musicians with networking, communication, teaching, and entrepreneurial skills so they can be the best advocates for their own careers. Her workshops have been featured at the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, Carnegie Hall for the fellows of Ensemble Connect, the Chamber Music America Conference, for the Teaching Artists of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and at many other conservatories and universities nationwide. Earlier in her career, Jessica conducted hundreds of workshops for students and adults for Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Caramoor, the Little Orchestra Society, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in addition to years training the musicians of tomorrow on how to connect with any community of today.
Jessica is most passionate about getting musicians of all ages off the page to activate their own creativity, improvise, and awaken their own inner composer – which in turn makes them better performers. In addition to teaching virtual workshops, live engagements have been for the Moab Music Festival, the National Youth Orchestra of Carnegie Hall, and in residence where her music is programmed. For several summers she served as the Composer in Residence for the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival at The Juilliard School and led their Emerging Composer Program. She also created and led a Teen Composer Intensive at New England Music Camp so that teens of all abilities can develop their craft, amass recordings for their portfolio, and connect with both professional and student performers.
Currently, Meyer serves on the viola and chamber music faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, training students on becoming the best version of their artistic selves while learning how to build a life in music.