Jessica Krash
Piano
jkrash@gwu.edu
Academic Building 214 (Mt. Vernon Campus)
Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy and Psychology of Music), 1982, Harvard-Radcliffe;
Master of Music (Piano), 1984, Juilliard School of Music;
Doctor of Musical Arts (Composition), 1995, University of Maryland at College Park
Described by the Washington Post as “tantalizing… engaging, with a touch of the provocative,” Jessica Krash’s compositions have been presented in traditional and experimental settings, including performances in New York City, Boston, Washington, DC, Baltimore and smaller cities. The Strathmore Music Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts have presented full concerts of her work. Capstone Records has released a full CD of her works for solo piano.
As a pianist, Jessica Krash has performed in America and Europe, including concerts at the Old Opera House in Frankfurt and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center, and the National Gallery in Washington, DC. She has given chamber music concerts with many string players including Kolja Blacher (former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic) and Igor Gavrysh (faculty of the Moscow Conservatory), and has recorded a work written for her by Lawrence Moss (Capstone Records CPS-8619).Jessica Krash regularly gives lectures in venues such as the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress. At GW, she has developed new courses including one on “dangerous music” and another on contemporary music.
Jessica Krash has received commissions and grants from numerous groups, and has directed several organizations, including the Washington chapter of the American Composers Forum, Chamber Music Weekend (an intensive festival for amateurs at the Levine School of Music), and a twenty-year monthly chamber music workshop for sophisticated amateur musicians. She has taught at the University of Maryland, George Mason University, and the Levine School of Music, in addition to being on the faculty of the George Washington University.
Born in Washington, DC, Jessica Krash graduated Phi Beta Kappa with high honors from Harvard College, earned a masters degree in piano from Juilliard, and a doctorate in composition from the University of Maryland. She also studied at MIT with Jeanne Bamberger, doing research in the philosophical and cognitive issues underlying musical understanding.