photo by Julie Skarratt
Described as “exciting…combining boom-crash orchestration with woozy portamenti and jazz elegance” by The New York Times, and “a force to be reckoned with” by Observer, the music of Australian composer Jack Frerer (b. 1995) blends influences from a diverse array of musical languages to craft dynamic and evocative works. His music combines bold, expressive gestures with vivid storytelling, crafting pieces that are both deeply personal and narratively compelling.
Jack’s work has been commissioned and performed by the New York City Ballet, the Albany, Nashville, Sarasota and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras, the Kennedy Center, Musica Viva Australia, Tanglewood, and the wind ensembles of UT Austin, UNT, Michigan and Cornell, among others. Jack is the recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Morton Gould Composers Award from ASCAP, the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, and the Brian Israel Prize from the Society for New Music. He was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, and Composer-in-Residence with the Arapahoe Philharmonic.
Recent and upcoming projects include Standard Deviation for the New York City Ballet and choreographer Alysa Pires, a new work for violinist Johan Dalene for Musica Viva Australia, and Simon Says, a Trombone Concerto for Greg Spiridopoulos and the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
As an orchestrator & arranger, Jack has created arrangements for artists including Rick Ross, Marcus Gilmore, baritone Will Liverman, and guitarist Yvette Young, and organizations such as WQXR, Nu Deco Ensemble, the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Cape Town Philharmonic. Recent film and production credits include the score for dance film Virtuality for BalletX, and the short films Always Summer and The Smoker directed by Alexa Eve. Jack served as recording engineer for the album Cityscapes by Shouthouse, released by New Amsterdam Records in 2019, and co-produced The Roof with Liana Kleinman, a series of collaborative films and performances featuring New York City-based choreographers and musicians.
Jack currently resides in New York City and serves on the composition faculty of Rutgers University, having previously been on the faculties of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and the Juilliard School Pre-College. Jack holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music where he studied with John Corigliano, Chris Theofanidis, David Lang, Aaron Jay Kernis and Martin Bresnick.