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Biography
Jennifer Jolley
B.M., University of Southern California Thornton School of Music
M.M. & D.M.A., University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
Jennifer Jolley (b. 1981) is a composer, conductor, and professor person. She is also a cat lover and part-time creative opera producer.
Jennifer’s work draws toward subjects that are political and even provocative. Her collaboration with librettist Kendall A, Prisoner of Conscience, has been described as “the ideal soundtrack and perhaps balm for our current ‘toxic…times’” by Frank J. Oteri of NewMusicBox. Her piece, Blue Glacier Decoy, written as a musical response to the Olympic National Park, depicts the Pacific Northwest’s melting glaciers. Her partnership with writer Scott Woods, You Are Not Alone, evokes the fallout of the #MeToo Movement.
Her works have been performed by ensembles worldwide. She has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Quince Ensemble, and many others.
Jennifer deeply values the relationship between composers and the communities in which they collaborate. She has been composer-in-residence at multiple institutions and promotes composer advocacy through her articles for NewMusicBox & I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. Also, she is on the Executive Council of the Institute for Composer Diversity and the New Music USA Program Council.
Jennifer received degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She is now an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at CUNY Lehman College, and she has been a composition faculty member at Interlochen Arts Camp since 2015. She previously held positions at Texas Tech and Ohio Wesleyan.