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TO HIRE JAY GORDON AS PERFORMER

See list of complete CHORAL works here

See list of complete GUITAR works here

Choral Samples:
Death is But Crossing the World
Read! Here is News

Score Samples:
The Keeping of the Soul for mixed voices
The Impossible Trees for solo guitar


 
The music of Jay Gordon in Minneapolis

AS COMPOSER Jay Gordon's compositions explore the intersection where spirituality and music meet.

My compositions have been performed by some of the best choral ensembles in the nation including commissions by The Dale Warland Singers, Cantus, the National Lutheran Choir, and the Rose Ensemble. Since studying classical guitar and composition and earning a Bachelors at the University of Minnesota, I've been active as composer, guitarist, teacher and concert producer. Little Boat Music Publishing publishes my music. Click here for guitar performance information.

In a world that seems more devoted to ideas about spirit than the experience of it, music is good at melting the conceptual barriers that reinforce religious isolation. It's for this reason that I've focused on writing music that explores the intersection where wisdom traditions and music meet. My commission for Cantus and the National Lutheran Choir, The Keeping of the Soul is a good example. It explores the idea that though religious beliefs are different the world over, the fact of death is universal. This work had its Canadian premiere in April of 2014.

This is from a Saint Paul Pioneer Press review:
"The Keeping of the Soul" by Jay Gordon is something like a Requiem Mass that looks at death through the lenses and languages of nine religions. Latin blends into Lakota, Aramaic into Arabic, but what could have been scattershot and unfocused instead proved very moving... It was one of the highlights of a full-immersion concert experience..."

Other choral works include commissions for the Rose Ensemble for a work on the life of Joan of Arc (Sixty Against One). The Dale Warland Singers commission (If You Love, Love Openly) is a work that combines a Zen story about the Buddhist nun Eshun with pre-Buddhist meditation instructions. It's uncompromising message of being true to yourself. Through a composer’s residency with the American Composers Forum's Faith Partners Program, I also have composed a sacred music collection of Psalm settings and other biblical texts.

In 1995 I founded and acted as Artistic Director for Music Saint Croix, an annual series of chamber music concerts and new music commissions based in Stillwater, Minnesota. Music Saint Croix’s aim is to attract new audiences for art music by presenting concerts in areas of great scenic beauty.

Duo Ahlert and Schwab commissioned me to write Listening Point for mandolin and guitar which had its premiere in Germany in 2017 and a recording by the duo for another work, Demonelix, is now available on the Naxos label. I have several albums (Diggunim Trees, Hoary Plucks: Renaissance music of Spain, Italy and England on Guitar and the latest Spanish Flowers: the Music of Albeniz and Granados) available on online resources such as iTunes.