Jesse Olsen Bay
sound maker
Jesse Olsen Bay is a composer, performer, teacher, and cultural organizer who lives in Western Massachusetts. At home in a wide variety of musical forms and styles, he creates sonic 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 work is rooted in a search for honesty and human connection.
Jesse has received 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, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Puffin Foundation, Opera America, East Bay Fund for Artists, and Paul Dresher Ensemble, among others.
Jesse is a prolific collaborator with dancers and choreographers. He has received Isadora Duncan Awards for his work with Sean Dorsey Dance (The Missing Generation (2015) and Secret History of Love (2013)), as well as nominations for his work with Amy Sewiert (In the Time, 2012) and Joe Goode (The Rambler, 2011). Other notable collaborators include Project Bandaloop, Scott Wells & Dancers, Tanya Bello, and Kristen Daley. He has scored several feature-length and short films, and his music regularly appears in television, radio, and podcasts. Recordings of Jesse's music are available on Porto Franco Records, Prefecture Records, Infrequent Seams, and Deconstruct My House.
For 20 years, Jesse was a fixture of the San Francisco Bay Area music community, performing in numerous ensembles including the eclectic singer-songwriter duo Ramon & Jessica (with Dina Maccabee), the electro-acoustic improvisation ensemble Open Graves (with Paul Kikuchi), and an array of brass, jazz, Balkan, and experimental groups. Currently, Jesse directs and performs with Miners (with Myk Freedman, Lynn Storm, and Rafe Wolman), an ensemble that explores folk music from the U.S. as a vehicle for improvisation and experimentation; Myrtle Street Klezmer Band; and O Ksenos traditional Greek folk music and Rembetika band. He facilitates the Montague Marching band, a community musical ensemble and mobile dance party.
In 2022, Jesse founded Weathervane Community Arts, an organization dedicated to fostering local community through music and the arts. Weathervane presents concerts, educational programs, and collaborative projects in New England.
Jesse is on faculty in the dance program at Umass Amherst, teaches throughout the 5 Colleges, and is pursuing a credential in music therapy. When he's not making, teaching, and organizing music, he can be found hanging out with his sons Yarrow (14) and Altair (7) and his partner Frieda, on their homestead in Montague, MA.