Jessica Krash, Composer and Pianist

“a fascinating composer – truly vibrant – thoroughly engaging”

—Gramophone

“Romantic lushness meets post-tonal grittiness”

— Allan Kozinn, The Wall Street Journal

“The notes talk to each other, ruminate and wonder about themselves.”

– James Ross, conductor

Premieres

“Hand in Hand” for clarinet, alto sax, and piano commissioned by and played by the Salon Trio. Riverdale Park Arts Film + Music Competition. Sunday, April 7, 2pm Riversdale House Museum. click here for info and free tickets.

“Between Friends” for piano duet, commissioned by Betty Miller. Premiere on February 17, 2024. Calvary Lutheran Church, Silver Spring, Maryland

“The Water is Wide” for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the City Choir of Washington, directed by Erin Freeman. Premiere on June 4, 2023, 5pm, Schlesinger Concert Hall in Alexandria, VA.

“The Imagined Wisdom of Bella Pavis” for solo violin, premiere by Jinan Laurentia Woo, violin, on Sunday, February 26, 2023 at 5pm, Roth Concert Series, Washington, DC

“Seven Kinds of Happiness” for orchestra, premiere on May 1, 2022 by the Community Women’s Orchestra in Oakland, California with guest conductor Martha Stoddard.

“What I Learned from You,” written in honor of the 300th birthday of the Vilna Gaon, was premiered by the Lithuanian State Wind Orchestra Trimitas in November, 2021 in Vilnius, directed by Aleksandras Simelis. And then recorded by Trimitas, directed by Karolis Variakojis.

Recent Recordings and Video Releases

The Imagined Wisdom of Bella Pavis Jinan Laurentia Woo, solo violin, listen and watch here

Hand in Hand on the Salon Trio’s new CD on the Tonsehen label
Click to listen here.
Click here for the Interview

Sulpicia’s Songs, video, Noelle McMurtry, soprano and Eric Sedgwick, piano
Click to see the video

Butterfly – Watch Jessica here as the orchestra-playing-at-and-inside-the-piano with extended techniques for Tim Nelson’s production at the IN Series. (“A Butterfly without the stereotypes” – Washington Post)

And Then for woodwind quintet, played by District 5
Click to see the video

Outside-In the Canyon, a short video opera about a painting by Helen Frankenthaler at the Phillips Collection

“Just in Case” (a protest song against the people who put “later” in “ventilator”) for bass baritone and piano, performed by David Freeman with Jessica Krash. Click to see the video.

Piano Performance

Concert with thereminist Gregoire Blanc in the Barns at Wolf Trap, as part of the 2022 International Workshop on the Neural and Social Bases of Creative Movement, April 10, 2022

Click here to see a video of the rehearsal of the Rachmaninov Vocalise

Jessica Krash’s Slow Music Emporium – video performances

Click to see Debussy Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum

Click to see J. S. Bach Invention #4

“innately lyrical — brave”

— Fanfare Magazine

BOTH HANDS — I like that music helps us figure things out. On the other hand, I like that music can’t entirely be figured out. I like music that is full of feelings (mole tam, full of flavor, as my grandmother used to say), and I like when music is an exploration of ideas, values, and worldview – two hands playing around with sound and momentum and qualities of motion, and gesture, proportion, contrasts, patterns, and clutter, and how we feel and think when some of those change – or on the other hand, when some of them don’t. I like thinking of music as moving the way our thoughts and feelings move, and I also like thinking of pieces of music as microcosms or invented realities, each piece a world with its horizons and ways.