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The American counter-tenor, choral conductor and music pedagogue, Jay White, studied at Salem High School (1985-1987). He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from University of Maryland, College Park (Class of 1991); his Master of Music degree in Early Music Voice from the Early Music Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington (1992-1995); and his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree from the Maryland Opera Studio at University of Maryland, College Park (Class of 2005). He studied vocal performance, musicology and performance practice, and pedagogy and vocology.
Jay White has served in higher education close to 15 years, and on the faculties of University of Maryland, University of Delaware, and DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana (2006-2011). Since August 2011, he is Professor of Voice at the Kent State University Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. Responsibilities comprise a full studio of music education, vocal performance, and musical theatre voice students, along with courses in diction, language, opera, and related undergraduate and graduate subjects in the voice curriculum. He has served as Music Director for the Kent State Opera since 2014, working with productions of literature from the 17th to 21st centuries.
Jay White has realized a performing career as a professional chorister and alto soloist spanning more than 35 years. He has sung every style from pre-medieval to post-modern to present-musical. He joined Quire Cleveland (Director: Ross W. Duffin) in 2012, and will assume the position of Artistic Director as of July 2018. In addition to Quire Cleveland, he has held choral positions with Washington National Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, Grace Cathedral San Francisco, Maryland Handel Festival, Washington Bach Consort (Director: J. Reilly Lewis), Folger Consort, Spire, Carmel Bach Festival Chorale (2014-2007; a total of 12 seasons with sabbaticals), and Apollo's Fire Singers (Director: Jeannette Sorrell), among many others. Sought after as an interpreter of repertoire from medieval to Baroque and beyond, he has appeared at national and international early music festivals. In all, as a choral singer, soloist, and chamber singer, he has participated in more than 1,400 performances around the globe.
Jay White sang eight seasons with the internationally acclaimed ensemble, Chanticleer (August 1995-June 2003), with whom he traveled to over 40 states and 15 foreign countries, performing more than 150 concerts each year. With the group, he appeared in such venues as Chicago Orchestra Hall, Cleveland Severance Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), National Theatre of Taipei (Taiwan), performed at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Interlochen, Schleswig-Holstein, and Brisbane (Australia) Music Festivals, and shared the stage with Frederica von Stade, Dawn Upshaw, Sting, the San Antonio Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Virginia Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic Orchestra. A unique aspect of his time with Chanticleer was engagement with a vast amount and diversity of repertoire, from chant to contemporary, interaction with more than a dozen living composers, such as Jake Heggie, David Lang, John Tavener, Augusta Read Thomas, and Chen Yi, and numerous USA and world premieres of innovative new works for the choral ensemble. No stranger to the recording process, he can be heard on more than 45 albums, including three nominations and two GRAMMY® Award-winning recordings with Chanticleer. He has been heard on National Public Radio and Public Radio International programs such as Harmonia, St. Paul Sunday, Around New York, Weekend Edition, Performance Today, and The Today Show, as well as radio and television broadcasts in more than 10 countries.
Research interests include the counter-tenor in music history, literature and repertoire for the emerging voice, historical performance practice, vocal health, individual voice and classroom singing, choral pedagogy, and musical theatre techniques and practice. As a writer and clinician, Jay White has offered juried sessions at numerous professional conferences such as the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Ohio Music Education Association, Voice Foundation, International Society of Music Education, Voices 500, and Southeastern Theatre Conference, among others. He currently lives in Streetsboro, Ohio, |
