About
Jesse Olsen Bay is a composer, performer and teacher who lives in Western Massachusetts. At home in a wide variety of musical forms and styles, he creates aural landscapes and narratives that explore the depths and extremities of the human experience. Ranging from art-songs and folk ballads to instrumental music for dance and film, from soundscape collage to experimental performance art, his music is always rooted in a search for meaning, truth, and human connection.
Jesse’s work has earned him awards and support from the American Composers Forum, San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, Meet the Composer/New Music USA, Ucross Foundation, Zellerbach Foundation, California Arts Council, East Bay Fund for Artists, and Paul Dresher Ensemble.
Jesse is a prolific collaborator with dancers and choreographers, for which he has received two Isadora Duncan Awards (and two additional nominations). Notable collaborations have included several works by Sean Dorsey Dance,Project Bandaloop's Harboring (2013), Amy Seiwert's Imagery's In The Time (2011), Joe Goode Performance Group's The Rambler (2010), and Scott Wells & Dancers' The How Not to See Dances (2006). He has scored several feature-length and short films, and his music has appeared in numerous television and radio spots.
For 20 years, Jesse was a mainstay of the San Francisco Bay Area music community, performing in numerous ensembles including the eclectic singer-songwriter duo Ramon & Jessica, and the experimental electro-acoustic improvisation ensemble Open Graves. Recordings of Jesse's music are available on Porto Franco Records, Prefecture Records, and Deconstruct My House.
Currently, Jesse directs and performs with miners, an ensemble that explores traditional folk music from the United States as a vehicle for improvisation and sonic experimentation, and Myrtle Street Klezmer Band. He also facilitates the Montague Marching band, a community musical ensemble and mobile dance party based in Montague, MA.
In 2023, Jesse founded Weathervane Community Arts (WCA), an organization dedicated to fostering community through music and the arts in Montague, MA and beyond. WCA presents concerts, educational programs, and collaborative projects throughout the year.
Jesse is on faculty in the dance program at Umass Amherst, and is pursuing a credential in music therapy (MT-BC). When he's not making, teaching, and organizing music, he can be found hanging out with his sons Yarrow (age 13) and Altair (age 6) and his partner Frieda, on their homestead in Montague, MA.
