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Biography

Ryan Jesperson (1981) is a composer whose music is steeped in the modern practice of blurring genres and skewing expectations.  With a taste for eccentric rhythms and dissonant chord progressions, Ryan’s music alludes to his jazz and rock roots while still staying firmly ensconced in the modern classical tradition.  Ryan holds an MM and an AD from the University of Hartford, and a BM and BA from Washington State University.  Currently, Ryan is a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he was a Chancellor’s Doctoral Fellow.  His principal compositions teachers included Chen Yi, Zhou Long, James Mobberley, Larry Alan Smith, Robert Carl, Stephen Gryc, Charles Argersinger and Gregory Yasinitsky.

Ryan’s compositions have been performed across the country and abroad, with performances at numerous SCI and NACUSA concerts, the UCM New Music Festival, the Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival, the Kalv Festival, and the ReJoyce Festival among others.  His chamber opera, Words for the Dead,was premiered in 2004 at Washington State University.  Recent performances include fragments and memories by Radu Clipa in Bucharest, Romania, Farbenmusik by Amanda Arrington in Kearney, NE, Sand at the Kalv Festival in Sweden, and Concerto for Flute by Sophia Tegart and the UMKC Orchestra in Kansas City, MO.  Upcoming performances include Indeed, this very Love, by the grammy-winning Kansas City Chorale, Hebdomas Squatinae by the Luna Nova Ensemble, Boombox Serenade by trumpeter Chris Belluscio, Farbenmusik in New York City, the premiere of fragments and memories by the UMKC Wind Symphony, the premiere of Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty, a concerto for alto sax and big band, by Bobby Watson and the UMKC Big Band, and the premiere of I. Jest by Robert Olson and the UMKC Orchestra. 

The winner of the 2010 UMKC Orchestra Competition, the 2010 Beethoven Club/Belvedere Chamber Festival Composition Contest, the 2010 KC Chorale Composition Competition, the 2009 British Trombone Society Composition Contest, the 2009 Kalv Festival Composition Contest, Ryan has also been honored by NACUSA, the College Music Society, ASCAPLUS, the Lional Hampton Jazz Festival, FASR, and Phi Beta Kappa.  Also an educator, Ryan was a member of the music faculty at the Hartford Conservatory and taught has at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Hartford.  Ryan is published through Sound Music Publications and Warwick Music, as well as his own imprint, Jazzperson Music. 

updated 7/5/2010