Jenece Gerber

sound architect & sculptor, composer, performer, teacher, healer, concert & event producer

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UPCOMING:

Artist Biography

Jenece is a sound architect, a sculptor of space through sound, and edge-dweller who thrives, creates, and guides others in the spaces between the worlds of academia/mysticism, corporeality/spirituality, land/sky, practicality/imagination, madness/sanity, sound/time/music, vernacular/exceptional, and material/abstract. She is a composer, singer, harpist, alchemist, yogi, Usui Reiki Master Teacher, Earth-sound researcher, sonic geomancer, concert and event producer, DJ (playing as DJ Quixotica), and teacher of composition, piano, voice, and Vocal Yoga. Jenece also offers shamanic sound journeys, meditation circles, community discussion groups on consciousness and the noetic sciences, guided forest bathing meditations, and group vocal improvisation/sounding circles.

An accomplished performer, Jenece is skilled in singing classical, jazz, experimental/improvisatory, and contemporary art music. Some highlights of vocal performances include performances with: ICETank in New York City, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Westminster Church Choir and Schola, Harmonia Chamber Singers, Blossom Festival Chorus, Babel experimental vocal ensemble, Viriditas women’s chorus, Buffalo Improvisers Orchestra, Lawrence  “Butch” Morris, Beyond/In Western New York International Arts Exposition, Abraxas New Music Ensemble, Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble, Surround: Audio/Visual Multimedia, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo Infringement Festival, and in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Diverse groups and soloists worldwide have commissioned and performed Jenece's music, including the New York Virtuoso Singers, pianist Alison d’Amato, soprano Tony Arnold, cellist Jonathan Golove, Clarence High School Chorale, Quince Vocal Ensemble, Abraxas New Music Ensemble, Season String Quartet, Westminster Presbyterian Church choir, Barton Workshop, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Holland/Weissman percussion/cello duo, the harp/flute duo of Jocelyn Chang and Michael Leese, La Catrina String Quartet, itch contemporary ensemble of Brevard Music Festival, University of Akron Woodwind Quintet, University at Buffalo Woodwind Quintet, and the Bowling Green State University Theatre Department. 

Jenece regularly works with directors, choreographers, and performance artists to create interdisciplinary multimedia performance works and recordings. 

Jenece served as Composer-in-Residence, Associate Conductor, and Staff Singer for the Westminster Presbyterian Church choir of Buffalo, NY under the direction of Garrett Martin.

Formal Education

In addition to extensive and ongoing self-directed study and research, Jenece earned the PhD in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Master of Music degrees in Music Composition and  Vocal Performance from the University of Akron, and the Bachelor of Arts degree in Ethnomusicology and Music Composition from Bowling Green State University. Her studies in ethnomusicology led her to study Balinese Gamelan music with Pak Wayan  Suweca on the island of Bali, Indonesia. She studied voice with Tony Arnold, Deborah Kavasch, and Heather Lyle and music composition with Marilyn Shrude, Burton Beerman, Donald Wilson, Wallace DePue, Jeffrey Stadelman, and David Felder. She has participated in workshops, festivals, and summer programs such as the June in Buffalo Festival, Summer in Sombor program in Serbia, Brevard Music Center, and the Weill Music Institute of Carnegie Hall.  

Jenece is a certified Usui Reiki Master Teacher, certified teacher of the Heather Lyle Vocal Yoga Method®, and has completed Community Group Facilitator training with the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

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Professional Development

• Institute for Noetic Sciences, Community Group Facilitator Training, 2020

• Certified Vocal Yoga Teacher, June 2017 (Heather Lyle Vocal Yoga Method®)

• Certified Usui Reiki Master Teacher, 2017

• June in Buffalo Festival participant, 2008

• Summer in Sombor, composition program in Serbia, 2007

• Brevard Music Center and Festival, 2005 Program Fellowship/Assistantship, composition and MIDI computer lab assistant

• Weill Music Institute of Carnegie Hall, workshop for composers and singers with John Harbison and Dawn Upshaw, 2004

• Summer program in gamelan performance on Bali and Java, Indonesia, 1993

Professional Affiliations

International Alliance for Women in Music (Board of Directors 2006-2008)

ASCAP

New Music USA

Fractured Atlas

New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA)

Institute for Noetic Sciences