Bio

Jay is in no particular order: a Pittsburgher-Seattlite-Bostonian (pittsboseattlurgheronian), teacher, improviser, reader of science fiction, archivist, organizer, partner of Michaela, writer, patcher of noisy electronics, bassoonist, discoverer of the Super Snorkel, interlocutor with artists of all mediums, and cook.

In more detail:

American composer Jay Rauch’s music has been performed both in the United States and internationally.  He has had pieces read and performed by members of ensembles including the JACK Quartet, the American Modern Ensemble, Sound Icon, and ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble). Jay has been a composition fellow at such festivals as New Music On the Point contemporary chamber music program (2014, 2015, 2021), the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona Italy (2016), and the Etchings Festival in Auvillar France (2018). He has studied composition with Joshua Fineberg, Alex Mincek, Huck Hodge, Eric Moe, Amy Williams, Joël-François Durand, Richard Cornell, Michael Gandolfi, and Rodney Lister, and participated in additional lessons and masterclasses with numerous composers including Fred Lerdahl, Beat Furrer, Pierluigi Billone, Marcos Balter, Missy Mazzoli, Chris Cerrone, Robert Morris, John Aylward, Amy Williams, David Rakowski, and Erin Gee.

Jay is currently a Ph.D. student in music theory and composition at the University of Pittsburgh where he works with Eric Moe, Amy Williams, and Charles Peck, and is pursuing a certificate in film and media studies. He also holds a Master of Music in composition from the University of Washington, where he studied with Huck Hodge and Joël François-Durand. In Pittsburgh and Washington, he has served as a teaching assistant for many courses in music theory, ear training, jazz history, and twentieth-century aesthetics.

Jay also works as an archivist. At the university of Washington he was a research assistant for musicologist Mark Rodgers, collecting and digitally archiving interviews for the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies on musical work in the time of COVID-19. He currently works in Pitt’s Archives and Special Collections processing the Sam Rivers collection at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 2018 Jay received a Bachelor of Music in composition and theory from Boston University where was a student of Joshua Fineberg. He studied bassoon through college with Boston Ballet bassoonist Ronald Haroutunian, and in his freshman year, Jay sought out and started to study conducting privately with Ken-David Masur, Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Munich Symphony. These lessons led to Jay’s three-year tenure as Head Music Librarian and a festival artist (bassoon) at the Chelsea Music Festival. While at BU, Jay served as the primary conductor of Boston University’s contemporary ensemble Time’s Arrow, through which he had the privilege of collaborating with composers such as Michael Finnissy, Nico Muhly, and Philip Grange.  Jay was also named a 2017-18 Presser Scholar at Boston University. From 2021-2022 Jay served as typesetter and subscriptions manager for the academic journal Perspectives of New Music.