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About Jennifer performance - composition - teaching Havana, Cuba 2018: Jennifer brought the very first two toy pianos to the island of Cuba, where they are now inspiring new generations of musicians! |
"I love how rebellious you are:
it's exactly what classical music needs."
- Nikhil Sardana, editor of India's Serenade Magazine
it's exactly what classical music needs."
- Nikhil Sardana, editor of India's Serenade Magazine
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Jennifer Wright, M.M., B.M. has been described as “a real force of nature” (FearNoMusic artistic director Kenji Bunch), "One of the coolest and most interesting music creators on the scene!" (new music icon Kathleen Supove), and "[One] of [Cascadia Composers’] most creative producer/composers" (Oregon ArtsWatch).
She is a pianist, multi-faceted performer, composer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, event producer, and culture-maker. Jennifer graduated summa cum laude from the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, CT with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance (along with a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies) and studied for two years at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Stuttgart Music Conservatory) and Universität Stuttgart in Germany. She was awarded several Distinctions for her Masters Degree achievements in performance and musicological research at the Trinity College of Music in London, England in the Historically Informed Piano Performance degree program. Her studies have also included extensive training in piano pedagogy, jazz and popular genres, period keyboard instruments, solo and group voice, dramatic/musical theater, and composition. In addition to trailblazing a vibrant performing and producing career, Jennifer teaches piano at Reed College, at Portland State University College of the Arts, and in her award-winning private studio in Portland, Oregon. |
Performance
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Jennifer performs regularly as a solo and collaborative artist and has presented numerous recitals, lectures, master classes, and workshops in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Cuba. Her wide-ranging repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the avant-garde, with a strong focus on the unique demands of her own work.
Actively seeking adventurous contexts for art, Jennifer has performed in venues as diverse as the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, smoky underground jazz cafes in Poland, the massive Brutalist concrete fountains of Lawrence Halprin, swallow-inhabited stone churches in the Finnish countryside, cavernous urban and industrial warehouses, hidden botanical gardens, a volcanic caldera, a historic ironworks foundry, the lobster-fishing piers of downeast Maine, and a massive peanut oil factory-turned performance art space in Havana, Cuba.
Actively seeking adventurous contexts for art, Jennifer has performed in venues as diverse as the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, smoky underground jazz cafes in Poland, the massive Brutalist concrete fountains of Lawrence Halprin, swallow-inhabited stone churches in the Finnish countryside, cavernous urban and industrial warehouses, hidden botanical gardens, a volcanic caldera, a historic ironworks foundry, the lobster-fishing piers of downeast Maine, and a massive peanut oil factory-turned performance art space in Havana, Cuba.
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Between her professional activities and teaching studio, Jennifer has spearheaded over 130 performance events. She specializes in orchestrating multimedia/multidisciplinary collaborative happenings that create unforgettable, immersive and interactive cultural experiences. She enjoys a challenge: you may have heard her performing wrapped in glowing LED lights, accompanying screenings of Charlie Chaplin films, impersonating historical figures such as Agathe Backer-Grondahl, Marie Antoinette, and Queen Elizabeth I in period attire, wearing sonic body armor, or flirting with frostbite during a 3-hour non-stop outdoor musical peace vigil in the middle of winter.
Jennifer's work has been supported by multiple grants and support from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Community Foundation, The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), The Oregon Music Teachers Association Nellie Tholen Fund, Cascadia Composers, the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, Zidell Yards, The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMHE), Reed College's Cooley Gallery, March Music Moderne (MMM), and funding from a variety of generous private sponsors and crowd-source venues.
Jennifer's work has been supported by multiple grants and support from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Community Foundation, The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), The Oregon Music Teachers Association Nellie Tholen Fund, Cascadia Composers, the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, Zidell Yards, The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMHE), Reed College's Cooley Gallery, March Music Moderne (MMM), and funding from a variety of generous private sponsors and crowd-source venues.
Performing "I Sing an Unending Song of Radical Beauty" with Daniel Brugh in the Keller Fountain at the Portland, Oregon 2017 Winter Light Festival
Composition
Jennifer’s works fuse personal, universal, experimental, and visceral modes of storytelling into a unique and ever-evolving artistic alchemy bent on exploring the human condition. Major areas of endeavor include (but are in no way limited to) creating experimental instruments and sound sculptures, multi-capacity theatrical physical performance, trash instruments, sound-capable wearables, social commentary and satire, climate change-based work, found sound, interactive art-making, and site-specific artistic responses. She thrives on vibrant interdisciplinary collaborations.
Jennifer has created individual works, collaborations, and major productions with ProLab Dance, the Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan Orchestra, Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana, creative coder/visual artist Nanda D’Agostino, krump dancer Snubb, Agnieszka Laska Dancers, filmmaker Takafumi Uehara, aerialist Jordie Campbell, sculptor Melita Westerlund, poet/dancer Akela Jaffi, mixed media artists Bonnie Meltzer, Ree Nancarrow, and Susan Campbell, Heidi Duckler Dance NW, the 20 Digitus piano duo, and many others.
Much of her work focuses around alternative keyed and percussion instruments such as typewriters, toy pianos, electrified harpsichords, destroyed and dismantled pianos, hand-built large-scale acoustic sound machines, and her one-of-a-kind “Skeleton Piano”, an upright piano that she deconstructed and plays from the inside out to create wild new worlds of sound. (More info available at skeletonpiano.com)
Jennifer has created a fleet of experimental “Post-Apocalyptic Instruments”, a wild range of large-scale music machines made of trash and consumer debris that explore realities of climate change and unsustainable human wastefulness. They include the "Chimaera", an assemblage of altered toy piano remnants and metal objects that creates other-worldly acoustic atmospheres; "The Phoenix", a wearable, analog percussion suit shaped like the mythical bird; and "The Egg", a golden 50-gallon oil drum nestled within a scrap-wood nest, and "The Hydra", a 6-foot-long harp made from a driftwood tree. In 2023-24, she created "The Glass Piano" for the exhibit "The Burned Piano Project" at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Portland, OR, an instrument that combined the remains of a grand piano incinerated in an anti-semitic hate crime with a new resonant body and borosilicate glass sounding rods.
From 2022, Jennifer has been an Artist in Residence at Zidell Shipyards in Portland, OR. She co-produced and composing the music for the ground-breaking, multimedia “Break to Build” shows and films (in VR, AR, and 360 dome formats) in collaboration with ProLab Dance, which feature multiple site-specific sound installations that she constructed from over two tons of industrial metal debris, including the Hanging Gamelan, Chain Wall, and Long Strings.
Jennifer has created individual works, collaborations, and major productions with ProLab Dance, the Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan Orchestra, Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana, creative coder/visual artist Nanda D’Agostino, krump dancer Snubb, Agnieszka Laska Dancers, filmmaker Takafumi Uehara, aerialist Jordie Campbell, sculptor Melita Westerlund, poet/dancer Akela Jaffi, mixed media artists Bonnie Meltzer, Ree Nancarrow, and Susan Campbell, Heidi Duckler Dance NW, the 20 Digitus piano duo, and many others.
Much of her work focuses around alternative keyed and percussion instruments such as typewriters, toy pianos, electrified harpsichords, destroyed and dismantled pianos, hand-built large-scale acoustic sound machines, and her one-of-a-kind “Skeleton Piano”, an upright piano that she deconstructed and plays from the inside out to create wild new worlds of sound. (More info available at skeletonpiano.com)
Jennifer has created a fleet of experimental “Post-Apocalyptic Instruments”, a wild range of large-scale music machines made of trash and consumer debris that explore realities of climate change and unsustainable human wastefulness. They include the "Chimaera", an assemblage of altered toy piano remnants and metal objects that creates other-worldly acoustic atmospheres; "The Phoenix", a wearable, analog percussion suit shaped like the mythical bird; and "The Egg", a golden 50-gallon oil drum nestled within a scrap-wood nest, and "The Hydra", a 6-foot-long harp made from a driftwood tree. In 2023-24, she created "The Glass Piano" for the exhibit "The Burned Piano Project" at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Portland, OR, an instrument that combined the remains of a grand piano incinerated in an anti-semitic hate crime with a new resonant body and borosilicate glass sounding rods.
From 2022, Jennifer has been an Artist in Residence at Zidell Shipyards in Portland, OR. She co-produced and composing the music for the ground-breaking, multimedia “Break to Build” shows and films (in VR, AR, and 360 dome formats) in collaboration with ProLab Dance, which feature multiple site-specific sound installations that she constructed from over two tons of industrial metal debris, including the Hanging Gamelan, Chain Wall, and Long Strings.
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Her compositions have been performed at the 29th and 31st Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea in Cuba (as part of the ongoing USA/Cuba composer exchange she helped orchestrate in 2016, the first such collaborative exchange since the Cuban revolution), the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (by members of the Corvus New Music Ensemble), FearNoMusic's "Justice (Just Us)" concert season, the 2020 and 2023 New Music Gathering festivals, The Astoria Music Festival, Portland International Piano Festival, the Sound and Fury concert series in Los Angeles, Portland’s March Music Moderne festival, Crazy Jane Composers concerts, Portland's Art for the Ears Series, Cascadia Composers concerts, as a guest artist at the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble (EDME) 2023 New Music Festival, on KBOO, XRAY, KTCB and AllClassical radio, on "Portland Today" and "Hello Rose City" segments on KGW TV, and on Cuban National TV.
Notable performers include FearNoMusic, Portland's Resonance Ensemble under the direction of Katherine FitzGibbon, pianist Kathleen Supové of "Exploding Piano" fame, the Free Marz String Trio, 20 Digitus Piano Duo, and Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana.
Jennifer is a member of ASCAP performing rights organization as a writer & publisher.
Notable performers include FearNoMusic, Portland's Resonance Ensemble under the direction of Katherine FitzGibbon, pianist Kathleen Supové of "Exploding Piano" fame, the Free Marz String Trio, 20 Digitus Piano Duo, and Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana.
Jennifer is a member of ASCAP performing rights organization as a writer & publisher.
Teaching & Pedagogy
Jennifer has taught piano full-time since 1998, at arts institutions such as The Hartt School Community Division in Hartford, CT (rated one of the top three university-affiliated arts schools in the United States), in music camps and workshops, and in private studios in Connecticut, London, England, and her present home in Portland, Oregon. She joined the Reed College music department as a studio piano instructor in 2021 and joined the piano faculty of Portland State University College of the Arts in 2023.
Jennifer is a highly creative and innovative teacher who is passionate about promoting joy and excellence in music making. Her teaching approach combines healthy technique, a curriculum custom-tailored for each individual, and a wide range of performances, group classes, and community outreach events. These combine with theoretical, historical, and contextual understanding to achieve a truly remarkable musical education that celebrates each student's unique personality and musical journey.
Jennifer frequently adjudicates piano and composition festivals for the Oregon Federation of Music Clubs and Oregon Music Teachers Association. She enjoys presenting workshops on pedagogy, performance, optimal learning, overcoming performing anxiety, and composition for performers, teachers, and students of all ages. She has had articles published in Oregon ArtsWatch, Oregon Musician, and OMTA Music News.
Jennifer is a highly creative and innovative teacher who is passionate about promoting joy and excellence in music making. Her teaching approach combines healthy technique, a curriculum custom-tailored for each individual, and a wide range of performances, group classes, and community outreach events. These combine with theoretical, historical, and contextual understanding to achieve a truly remarkable musical education that celebrates each student's unique personality and musical journey.
Jennifer frequently adjudicates piano and composition festivals for the Oregon Federation of Music Clubs and Oregon Music Teachers Association. She enjoys presenting workshops on pedagogy, performance, optimal learning, overcoming performing anxiety, and composition for performers, teachers, and students of all ages. She has had articles published in Oregon ArtsWatch, Oregon Musician, and OMTA Music News.
A sampling of some of Jennifer's private piano studio's adventurous projects!
For more info, visit the Studio Gallery page.
For more info, visit the Studio Gallery page.
A full costume concert celebrating the music of Star Wars, complete with skits, a 14-piano rendition of the Star Wars Main Theme, and a 5-foot-diameter Death Star pinata.
We wrote and presented a 2-hour puppet show with non-stop live piano accompaniment: sets, scenery, puppets, funny voices, and all!
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Non-stop live piano accompaniment to a classic Charlie Chaplin silent film.
Students researched the technical, musical and social history of the harpsichord and presented a full evening of entertainment dressed in full period regalia, powdered wigs and all!
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We wrote, filmed and scored a feature-length science fiction movie from scratch and screened it in Portland's historic Clinton Street movie theater - for real!
To support their performances of unusual 20th century music, students dismantled an entire upright piano and made a gallery of 27 playable sound sculptures from the parts!
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Artist's CV
Education
2003
Master of Music in Piano Performance Studies
TRINITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC
London, United Kingdom
• Highest academic grades awarded to date in the degree program
• Multiple distinctions awarded (DISTINCTION = DEFINED AS WORK ACHIEVING NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE IN STATURE)
1999-2000
Graduate Piano Pedagogy Courses
THE HARTT SCHOOL
West Hartford, CT
• Cumulative GPA: 4.0
• Faculty Development Grant full scholarship recipient
1999
Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance & Dual Major in German Studies
THE HARTT SCHOOL
West Hartford, CT
• Summa cum laude, cumulative GPA: 3.89
• Pi Kappa Lambda Musical Honor Society membership for excellence in music/academics
1995-97
Undergraduate foreign exchange study
HOCHSCHULE FÜR MUSIK UND DARSTELLENDE KUNST (Conservatory for Music & Performing Arts) & UNIVERSITÄT STUTTGART
Stuttgart, Germany
• Full scholarship/stipend recipient, Baden-Württemberg Exchange Program
Teaching
2021-present
Piano faculty, Reed College, Portland, OR
2023-24
Piano faculty, Portland State University College of the Arts, Portland, OR
2003-present
Owner & piano/composition instructor, Jennifer Wright Piano Studio, Portland, OR
2014-present
Lecturer, Oregon Music Teachers Association (multiple locations across Oregon & online)
2001-2003
Owner & piano instructor, Jennifer Wright Piano Studio, London, U.K.
1997-2000
Owner & piano instructor, Jennifer Wright Piano Studio, Hartford, CT
1998-2000
Piano instructor, The Hartt School Community Division, Hartford, CT
Selection of Solo-Produced Major Events
(Served multiple roles as artistic director, composer, performer, producer, graphic designer & publicist)
2025
Solo Exhibition, performance series & workshops: experimental art instruments & interactive sonic-visual installations (PLACE Galleria, Portland, OR)
Long Strings: Industrial Debris & Sound Machines concerts (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
2023
BODY/LANGUAGE festival of multicultural music, art & dance (Toast Studios, Portland, OR)
Songs of Post-Apocalyptic Instruments New Music Gathering Festival (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2022
Flights of Imagination with Kathleen Supové (Michelle’s Pianos, Portland, OR)
2021
The Phoenix Project: Music in the Time of Climate Emergency (BodyVox Theater, Portland, OR)
2020
In This Together: A Performance Bearing Witness to Change, Protest, Revolution & the Power of Rebirth in the 50th Year of the Historic Keller Fountain (Keller Fountain, Portland, OR)
2015
Skeleton Piano Dances with Agnieszka Laska Dancers (BodyVox Theater, Portland, OR)
2014
Piano Bizarro (Michelle’s Pianos, Portland, OR)
Selection of Co-Produced Major Events
(Served multiple roles as co-artistic director/producer, composer, performer & graphic designer)
Upcoming
The Exploding Piano Tour with Kathleen Supové (locations TBD)
Everything is Effed Up! On Tour with Lucas Marshall Smith (locations TBD)
2024
Break to Build 2: After the Anthropocene with ProLab Dance (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
The Burned Piano Project: Creating Music Amidst the Noise of Hate 3-month exhibition & concert series at Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE, Portland, OR)
Ancient Futures with Patrick Brewer & Daniel Brugh (Alberta Abbey, Portland, OR)
Live at the Jazz Station with Paul Safar & Ted Clifford (The Jazz Station, Eugene, OR)
When We Were Ocean with ProLab Dance (Kendall Planetarium, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland, OR)
2023
Break to Build with ProLab Dance (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed: NMG Edition! with Timothy O’Brien & Nicholas Yandell, New Music Gathering Festival (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed: Eugene Edition! with Timothy O’Brien & Nicholas Yandell (First Christian Church, Eugene, OR)
2021
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed! A Dragtastic Concert Celebrating Queer Identity & Expression with Timothy O’Brien & Nicholas Yandell (Clinton Street Theater, Portland, OR)
2019
All Wired Up: A Micro-Festival of New Electronic Music with Daniel Brugh/Cascadia Composers (The Old Church, Portland, OR)
2018
Caldera: A Fiery Festival of New Music - Surround Sound in the Center of Portland’s Volcanic Cinder Cone with Daniel Brugh/Cascadia Composers (Mt. Tabor Park amphitheater, Portland, OR)
Waters of the World with Heidi Duckler Dance NW (The Fair-Haired Dumbbell, Portland, OR)
Music in the Time of Absinthe with Linda Woody (Community Music Center, Portland, OR)
(Dis)Connect: New Music For Challenging Times with Burn After Listening (Disjecta Art Gallery, Portland, OR)
2017
Fire + Ice: Debut Concert & Art Happening with Burn After Listening (PLACE, Portland, OR)
2016
Crazy Jane in Technicolor with Crazy Jane Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2014
Crazy Jane: Inner Nature with Crazy Jane Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2013
Crazy Jane Misbehaves with Crazy Jane Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2012
Crazy Jane Collaborates! with Crazy Jane Composers (Colonial Heights Church, Portland, OR)
Selected performances of original work
2024
Guest artist/interviewee: Think Out Loud radio show “A Visit to The Burned Piano Project” Oregon Public Broadcasting (recorded at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, OR)
Guest Artist Solo Show: Mobile Skeleton Piano Cave Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble (EDME) New Music Festival (Farmer’s Market Pavilion, Eugene, OR)
Blackout 24 24: Electro-Acoustic Soundscapes in the Dark Cascadia Composers (Alberta House, Portland, OR)
2023
Friday at Four Music Series Reed College Faculty Showcase (Reed College Elliot Chapel, Portland, OR)
2022
Crossing Paths 2022 Cascadia Composers (Leach Botanical Garden, Portland, OR)
2022
Collaborations 2022: Re/Emergence Cascadia Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
This Must Be The Place! Heidi Duckler Dance NW (PLACE, Portland, OR)
Friday @ Four Music Series Reed College Faculty Showcase (Reed College Elliot Chapel, Portland, OR)
2021
Cooped Up 5 Online performance series, Heidi Duckler Dance NW (Zoom series)
Crossing Paths Cascadia Composers (Leach Botanical Garden, Portland, OR)
2020
Cooped Up 2 Online performance series, Heidi Duckler Dance NW (Zoom series)
RUSH HOUR Heidi Duckler Dance NW (NW Marine ArtWorks, Portland, OR)
2019
Polaris Galaxy Dance Festival Polaris Dance Theater (Director Park, Portland, OR)
2018
Un Segundo Abrazo: Cascadia Composers regressa a Cuba (Cascadia Composers Return to Cuba) & Cascadia Composers at FAC 2 concerts at 31st Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes & Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC), Havana, Cuba)
Guest Artist Solo Show: Sound and Fury concert series (ArtShare Theater, Los Angeles, CA)
Made in Oregon: New Music From Cascadia Composers Astoria Music Festival (CCC Performing Arts Center, Astoria, OR)
2017
Nonsense Daniel Brugh & Cascadia Composers (PLACE, Portland, OR)
2016
Cascadian Composers 29th Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba)
Perceptions of Sound: A Multisensory Concert Experience Cascadia Composers (First Christian Church, Eugene, OR)
A Cuba con Amor (To Cuba With Love) Cascadia Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2014
Composers at Play: New Art Music That Has Some Serious Fun With Improvisation Cascadia Composers (Community Music Center, Portland, OR)
2009
Guest Artist Solo Show: Cabinet of Curiosities: A Collection of Exotic Souvenirs From Around the Globe Art in the Pearl series (Sherman Clay Pianos, Portland, OR)
2008
Guest Artist Solo Show: Pianistin maailmanympärimatka (Postcards From Afar) Karjalohja Summer Music Festival (Karjalohja Stone Church, Karjalohja, Finland)
Selected Professional Projects & Activities
Upcoming
Sound Machine-Building Apprenticeship with Trimpin (Tieton, WA)
Experimental dance-music film with dancer/choreographer Carla Mann (Portland, OR)
2024
Curator/artist/performer/project manager for The Burned Piano Project: Creating Music Amidst the Noise of Hate 3-month art exhibition & concert series with/at the Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE, Portland, OR)
2024
Extravaganza! Improvisational Dance/Music Workshop & Performance Co-led with Carla Mann, Reed College Head of Dance (Reed College Performing Arts Building, Portland, OR)
2023
Founder/director/composer, ExPiRhyEns (Experimental Piano & Rhythm Ensemble) Reed College chamber music program (Portland, OR)
2022
Chairperson, Oregon Music Teachers Association “Composer of the Year” program
2021-2024
Co-director/collaborator, award-winning, site-specific dance company ProLab Dance (Portland, OR)
2018-24
Board member/collaborator, award-winning, site-specific dance company Heidi Duckler Dance NW (Portland, OR)
2012-16
Board member/artistic co-director/collaborator Crazy Jane Composers, a group of Pacific NW women composers (Portland, OR)
2012-13
Board member/artistic co-director/collaborator, Cascadia Composers, the Pacific NW chapter of the National Association of Composers, USA [NACUSA] (Portland, OR)
2015-present
Performance & composition festivals/competitions adjudicator, OR Federation of Music Clubs, Oregon Music Teachers Association, National Federation of Music Clubs
2012-14
State Chair & Portland District Chair, OMTA Student Composition Celebration Festival
2013-present
Published articles in Oregon ArtsWatch, Oregon Musician, OMTA Music News
Notable Instances of Jennifer Wright Compositions Performed by Other Musicians
2023-24
Bevin Victoria & the Break to Build music ensemble, ProLab Dance’s “Break to Build” shows (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
2020
FearNoMusic ensemble, “Justice (Just Us)” season, “Locally Sourced Sounds” concert (The Old Church, Portland, OR)
2019
20 Digitus Piano Duo, Portland State University Lunchtime Concert Series (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2018
Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana, “Un Segundo Abrazo: Cascadia Composers Regressa a Cuba, (Cascadia Composers Return to Cuba)” at the 31st Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba)
2018
Cascadia Composers guest ensemble, “Our Waters: Big River to the Pacific” concert (PSU Native American Student & Community Center, Portland, OR)
2017-18
CORVUS New Music Ensemble, “Sound of Nature: Alaskan Premieres”, Composing in the Wilderness Program concerts at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (Fairbanks, AK)
2017
Resonance Ensemble, “Desire for the Sacred” Cascadia Composers concert, (Agnes Flanagan Chapel, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR)
2016
Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana, “Cascadian Composers” 29th Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba)
2015-2021
Various student artists, “In Good Hands” Young Artists concerts, Cascadia Composers & Portland International Piano Festival, several (multiple locations in Portland, OR & online)
2014
Free Marz String Trio, “Tango Project: Menage a Trois” March Music Moderne festival (Community Music Center, Portland, OR)
2003
Master of Music in Piano Performance Studies
TRINITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC
London, United Kingdom
• Highest academic grades awarded to date in the degree program
• Multiple distinctions awarded (DISTINCTION = DEFINED AS WORK ACHIEVING NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE IN STATURE)
1999-2000
Graduate Piano Pedagogy Courses
THE HARTT SCHOOL
West Hartford, CT
• Cumulative GPA: 4.0
• Faculty Development Grant full scholarship recipient
1999
Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance & Dual Major in German Studies
THE HARTT SCHOOL
West Hartford, CT
• Summa cum laude, cumulative GPA: 3.89
• Pi Kappa Lambda Musical Honor Society membership for excellence in music/academics
1995-97
Undergraduate foreign exchange study
HOCHSCHULE FÜR MUSIK UND DARSTELLENDE KUNST (Conservatory for Music & Performing Arts) & UNIVERSITÄT STUTTGART
Stuttgart, Germany
• Full scholarship/stipend recipient, Baden-Württemberg Exchange Program
Teaching
2021-present
Piano faculty, Reed College, Portland, OR
2023-24
Piano faculty, Portland State University College of the Arts, Portland, OR
2003-present
Owner & piano/composition instructor, Jennifer Wright Piano Studio, Portland, OR
2014-present
Lecturer, Oregon Music Teachers Association (multiple locations across Oregon & online)
2001-2003
Owner & piano instructor, Jennifer Wright Piano Studio, London, U.K.
1997-2000
Owner & piano instructor, Jennifer Wright Piano Studio, Hartford, CT
1998-2000
Piano instructor, The Hartt School Community Division, Hartford, CT
Selection of Solo-Produced Major Events
(Served multiple roles as artistic director, composer, performer, producer, graphic designer & publicist)
2025
Solo Exhibition, performance series & workshops: experimental art instruments & interactive sonic-visual installations (PLACE Galleria, Portland, OR)
Long Strings: Industrial Debris & Sound Machines concerts (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
2023
BODY/LANGUAGE festival of multicultural music, art & dance (Toast Studios, Portland, OR)
Songs of Post-Apocalyptic Instruments New Music Gathering Festival (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2022
Flights of Imagination with Kathleen Supové (Michelle’s Pianos, Portland, OR)
2021
The Phoenix Project: Music in the Time of Climate Emergency (BodyVox Theater, Portland, OR)
2020
In This Together: A Performance Bearing Witness to Change, Protest, Revolution & the Power of Rebirth in the 50th Year of the Historic Keller Fountain (Keller Fountain, Portland, OR)
2015
Skeleton Piano Dances with Agnieszka Laska Dancers (BodyVox Theater, Portland, OR)
2014
Piano Bizarro (Michelle’s Pianos, Portland, OR)
Selection of Co-Produced Major Events
(Served multiple roles as co-artistic director/producer, composer, performer & graphic designer)
Upcoming
The Exploding Piano Tour with Kathleen Supové (locations TBD)
Everything is Effed Up! On Tour with Lucas Marshall Smith (locations TBD)
2024
Break to Build 2: After the Anthropocene with ProLab Dance (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
The Burned Piano Project: Creating Music Amidst the Noise of Hate 3-month exhibition & concert series at Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE, Portland, OR)
Ancient Futures with Patrick Brewer & Daniel Brugh (Alberta Abbey, Portland, OR)
Live at the Jazz Station with Paul Safar & Ted Clifford (The Jazz Station, Eugene, OR)
When We Were Ocean with ProLab Dance (Kendall Planetarium, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland, OR)
2023
Break to Build with ProLab Dance (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed: NMG Edition! with Timothy O’Brien & Nicholas Yandell, New Music Gathering Festival (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed: Eugene Edition! with Timothy O’Brien & Nicholas Yandell (First Christian Church, Eugene, OR)
2021
Fierce, Fabulous, and Fully Coiffed! A Dragtastic Concert Celebrating Queer Identity & Expression with Timothy O’Brien & Nicholas Yandell (Clinton Street Theater, Portland, OR)
2019
All Wired Up: A Micro-Festival of New Electronic Music with Daniel Brugh/Cascadia Composers (The Old Church, Portland, OR)
2018
Caldera: A Fiery Festival of New Music - Surround Sound in the Center of Portland’s Volcanic Cinder Cone with Daniel Brugh/Cascadia Composers (Mt. Tabor Park amphitheater, Portland, OR)
Waters of the World with Heidi Duckler Dance NW (The Fair-Haired Dumbbell, Portland, OR)
Music in the Time of Absinthe with Linda Woody (Community Music Center, Portland, OR)
(Dis)Connect: New Music For Challenging Times with Burn After Listening (Disjecta Art Gallery, Portland, OR)
2017
Fire + Ice: Debut Concert & Art Happening with Burn After Listening (PLACE, Portland, OR)
2016
Crazy Jane in Technicolor with Crazy Jane Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2014
Crazy Jane: Inner Nature with Crazy Jane Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2013
Crazy Jane Misbehaves with Crazy Jane Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2012
Crazy Jane Collaborates! with Crazy Jane Composers (Colonial Heights Church, Portland, OR)
Selected performances of original work
2024
Guest artist/interviewee: Think Out Loud radio show “A Visit to The Burned Piano Project” Oregon Public Broadcasting (recorded at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, OR)
Guest Artist Solo Show: Mobile Skeleton Piano Cave Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble (EDME) New Music Festival (Farmer’s Market Pavilion, Eugene, OR)
Blackout 24 24: Electro-Acoustic Soundscapes in the Dark Cascadia Composers (Alberta House, Portland, OR)
2023
Friday at Four Music Series Reed College Faculty Showcase (Reed College Elliot Chapel, Portland, OR)
2022
Crossing Paths 2022 Cascadia Composers (Leach Botanical Garden, Portland, OR)
2022
Collaborations 2022: Re/Emergence Cascadia Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
This Must Be The Place! Heidi Duckler Dance NW (PLACE, Portland, OR)
Friday @ Four Music Series Reed College Faculty Showcase (Reed College Elliot Chapel, Portland, OR)
2021
Cooped Up 5 Online performance series, Heidi Duckler Dance NW (Zoom series)
Crossing Paths Cascadia Composers (Leach Botanical Garden, Portland, OR)
2020
Cooped Up 2 Online performance series, Heidi Duckler Dance NW (Zoom series)
RUSH HOUR Heidi Duckler Dance NW (NW Marine ArtWorks, Portland, OR)
2019
Polaris Galaxy Dance Festival Polaris Dance Theater (Director Park, Portland, OR)
2018
Un Segundo Abrazo: Cascadia Composers regressa a Cuba (Cascadia Composers Return to Cuba) & Cascadia Composers at FAC 2 concerts at 31st Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes & Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC), Havana, Cuba)
Guest Artist Solo Show: Sound and Fury concert series (ArtShare Theater, Los Angeles, CA)
Made in Oregon: New Music From Cascadia Composers Astoria Music Festival (CCC Performing Arts Center, Astoria, OR)
2017
Nonsense Daniel Brugh & Cascadia Composers (PLACE, Portland, OR)
2016
Cascadian Composers 29th Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba)
Perceptions of Sound: A Multisensory Concert Experience Cascadia Composers (First Christian Church, Eugene, OR)
A Cuba con Amor (To Cuba With Love) Cascadia Composers (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2014
Composers at Play: New Art Music That Has Some Serious Fun With Improvisation Cascadia Composers (Community Music Center, Portland, OR)
2009
Guest Artist Solo Show: Cabinet of Curiosities: A Collection of Exotic Souvenirs From Around the Globe Art in the Pearl series (Sherman Clay Pianos, Portland, OR)
2008
Guest Artist Solo Show: Pianistin maailmanympärimatka (Postcards From Afar) Karjalohja Summer Music Festival (Karjalohja Stone Church, Karjalohja, Finland)
Selected Professional Projects & Activities
Upcoming
Sound Machine-Building Apprenticeship with Trimpin (Tieton, WA)
Experimental dance-music film with dancer/choreographer Carla Mann (Portland, OR)
2024
Curator/artist/performer/project manager for The Burned Piano Project: Creating Music Amidst the Noise of Hate 3-month art exhibition & concert series with/at the Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE, Portland, OR)
2024
Extravaganza! Improvisational Dance/Music Workshop & Performance Co-led with Carla Mann, Reed College Head of Dance (Reed College Performing Arts Building, Portland, OR)
2023
Founder/director/composer, ExPiRhyEns (Experimental Piano & Rhythm Ensemble) Reed College chamber music program (Portland, OR)
2022
Chairperson, Oregon Music Teachers Association “Composer of the Year” program
2021-2024
Co-director/collaborator, award-winning, site-specific dance company ProLab Dance (Portland, OR)
2018-24
Board member/collaborator, award-winning, site-specific dance company Heidi Duckler Dance NW (Portland, OR)
2012-16
Board member/artistic co-director/collaborator Crazy Jane Composers, a group of Pacific NW women composers (Portland, OR)
2012-13
Board member/artistic co-director/collaborator, Cascadia Composers, the Pacific NW chapter of the National Association of Composers, USA [NACUSA] (Portland, OR)
2015-present
Performance & composition festivals/competitions adjudicator, OR Federation of Music Clubs, Oregon Music Teachers Association, National Federation of Music Clubs
2012-14
State Chair & Portland District Chair, OMTA Student Composition Celebration Festival
2013-present
Published articles in Oregon ArtsWatch, Oregon Musician, OMTA Music News
Notable Instances of Jennifer Wright Compositions Performed by Other Musicians
2023-24
Bevin Victoria & the Break to Build music ensemble, ProLab Dance’s “Break to Build” shows (Zidell Shipyards, Portland, OR)
2020
FearNoMusic ensemble, “Justice (Just Us)” season, “Locally Sourced Sounds” concert (The Old Church, Portland, OR)
2019
20 Digitus Piano Duo, Portland State University Lunchtime Concert Series (PSU Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR)
2018
Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana, “Un Segundo Abrazo: Cascadia Composers Regressa a Cuba, (Cascadia Composers Return to Cuba)” at the 31st Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba)
2018
Cascadia Composers guest ensemble, “Our Waters: Big River to the Pacific” concert (PSU Native American Student & Community Center, Portland, OR)
2017-18
CORVUS New Music Ensemble, “Sound of Nature: Alaskan Premieres”, Composing in the Wilderness Program concerts at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (Fairbanks, AK)
2017
Resonance Ensemble, “Desire for the Sacred” Cascadia Composers concert, (Agnes Flanagan Chapel, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR)
2016
Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana, “Cascadian Composers” 29th Annual Festival de La Habana de Música Contemporánea (Sala Teatro del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba)
2015-2021
Various student artists, “In Good Hands” Young Artists concerts, Cascadia Composers & Portland International Piano Festival, several (multiple locations in Portland, OR & online)
2014
Free Marz String Trio, “Tango Project: Menage a Trois” March Music Moderne festival (Community Music Center, Portland, OR)
Professional Affiliations
Jennifer has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Cascadia Composers (a chapter of the National Association of Composers, USA [NACUSA]) as well as the award-winning, site-specific dance companies ProLab Dance and Heidi Duckler Dance Northwest.
Present
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
National Association of Composers/U.S.A. (NACUSA)
Cascadia Composers (Pacific NW USA chapter of NACUSA)
Music Teachers’ National Association (MTNA)
Oregon Music Teachers’ Association (OMTA)
ProLab Dance
Reed College
Portland State University College of the Arts
Past
European Piano Teachers’ Association (U.K.)
Connecticut State Music Teachers’ Association (CSMTA)
Suzuki Association of the Americas
Kindermusik International
Hartt School Community Division
Crazy Jane Composers
Heidi Duckler Dance NW
Give me a shout!
jenniferawright (at) yahoo.com | 503-475-2406 | 3656 SE Morrison Street, Portland, OR 97214
ASCAP writer / publisher
Check out skeletonpiano.com to see what I've been up to with my Skeleton Piano!
jenniferawright (at) yahoo.com | 503-475-2406 | 3656 SE Morrison Street, Portland, OR 97214
ASCAP writer / publisher
Check out skeletonpiano.com to see what I've been up to with my Skeleton Piano!