Honors Program Alumni

Jenece Gerber, Class of ‘95

Jenece Gerber is a self-designed program in Ethnomusicology, music composition emphasis) is currently finishing the Ph.D in Music Composition at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she also studies voice with Tony Arnold. She received the MM in Music Composition from the University of Akron, where she is also currently a candidate for the MM in Vocal Performance. Her upcoming New York City debut performance in late October of 2007 is the premiere of "je me delace", written for and premiered by the New York Virtuoso Singers. Recently she traveled to Serbia for the "Summer in Sombor" composition program, where her new string quartet "judge a moth by the beauty of its candle" was premiered by the Season Quartet.

A vacationing extension of her trip to Europe was a well-deserved respite from the rigors of work and studies (and precisely the finishing of all coursework for her terminal degree)--she explored Cologne, took a Rhine river cruise, enjoyed a day-trip to Paris (where she had worked as an au-pair nearly 17 years ago), took a 24-hr train ride through the mountains of southern Serbia and Bulgaria to Istanbul (where she bought far too many gifts and souvenirs and, yes, a carpet), and a 13-hr bus ride from Istanbul to the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey...to a remote village filled with ancient Lycean ruins and a spectacular beach that is also the nesting grounds of the endangered Loggerhead turtle.

Earlier this year she wrote and performed in a new experimental piece, "by chance", at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo as part of the 2007 Buffalo Infringement Festival (see http://www.hallwalls.org/music_07.html ). In June she participated in the June in Buffalo composition program and in April the Barton Workshop presented a portion of her new work "Equi-", a piece for any 1-5 instruments that uses some non-traditional/graphic notation. Also in April the UB Contemporary Ensemble performed a portion of her "Woodwind Quartet no. 1: The Birds" in Slee Hall at SUNY at Buffalo.

Jenece has taught in the fields of Historical Musicology and in Music Theory at the State University of New York at Buffalo and at the University of Akron. Currently she works as a professional music copyist and as a research assistant in the department of Historical Musicology at SUNY at Buffalo. In October of 2006 she produced a concert of works by Buffalo composers at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. She has also been active in singing with contemporary music ensembles, including the Open Music Ensemble, the UB Contemporary Ensemble, and Babel. In July of 2006 her review of Marilyn J. Ziffrin's CD "Songs and Arias" was published in the journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Other recent performances include Sarah Evans' performance "Oregon Sketches" at the 2005 National Conference of Society of Composers, Inc. at the University of North Carolina--Greensboro and a premiere of "Three Dream Songs" by the contemporary ensemble at Brevard Music Festival in the summer of 2005.