JESSE AYERS
JESSE AYERS was the winner of the inaugural American Prize for Orchestral Composition in 2011, and was named an "Honored Artist" of the American Prize in 2014. Recent honors include First Prize in the 2016 Opera Kansas Zepick Modern Opera Composition competition, a 2014 Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Award, the 2013 Boston Metro Opera Concert Award, the 2011 Dayton Ballet “New Music for New Dance" award, and a 2010 MacDowell Fellowship.
Recent commissions include those from the Akron Symphony, Soprani Compagni, the Indiana Bandmasters Association, the Ohio Private Colleges Instrumental Conductors Association, the Wisconsin Lutheran National Honors Band, and Milligan College.
His music has been performed in more than 100 U.S. cities and eight foreign countries. Much of his music is scored for large "surround-sound" forces and explores the intersection of the spiritual and natural worlds and the redemptive intervention of God in the affairs of the human race.
Ayers holds the D.M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Kentucky, M.M. and B.M. in Music Composition from the University of Tennessee.