Jamie Klenetsky Fay is a composer, vocalist, and passionate advocate of new music.
She’s a long-time member of the ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award-winning C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, where she’s sung in over 50 premieres of new work. Jamie’s choral and vocal compositions have been performed across the United States.
Using music as a medium for creating dialogue, Jamie thrives in collaborating with performers in workshopping her music and creating a thought-provoking experience for her audience through themes such as climate change, immigration, and gentrification. Inspired by music from many genres, Jamie strives to create music that is meaningful and relevant to today’s audience.
Being a vocalist, Jamie fell in love with writing choral music. In 2018, I Remain was premiered by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Men’s Ensemble. During the COVID-19 pandemic, C4 premiered two of Jamie’s works, Neighbors at Seven and Grateful, during the C4 Goes Remote series. Besides these, C4 has premiered five of Jamie’s works: Tomaraji na kumo (The Ceaseless Clouds), Seawall, Vanishing, The Temple Bells and An Ever-Fixed Mark. Seawall has since been performed by multiple choirs across the United States, France, and Scotland. Tomaraji na kumo was also performed by sister organization C3LA in 2017. The Words, slated for performance during C4’s COVID-cancelled June 2020 concert, was revised and performed in 2023.
Two art songs, Distance and To Be Heard, were premiered in Michigan and Kansas City. Jamie explored percussion in 2019 at Cisum Percussion’s Student Composer Workshop, resulting in Material. Jamie participated in Rhymes With Opera’s summer workshop (2020) and the 1:2:1 Intensive (2021), resulting in Unlearning (soprano and electronics) and Hibernation (piano). Jamie attended Walden’s Creative Musicians Retreat in 2017, where her piece for marimba and violin, Thoughts Creep In, was workshopped and performed by Matt Gould and the Mivos Quartet.
She was a finalist in the San Francisco Choral Artists’ New Voices competition in 2007 and the Karen Sokolof Javitch Emerging Composer Competition (Omaha, NE) in 2008. Jamie was commissioned to write three pieces for the Seton Hall Chapel Choir (2010-2011), and also had her electronic music heard during New Music Hartford in 2011.
Besides her vocal work with C4, Jamie served as an artist-in-residence with the Continuo Arts Foundation, performing with its professional ensemble, Sonare. She was a featured soloist of the Red Oak Contemporary Ensemble. Jamie has performed in new music workshops including the Breathmark Retreat, Creative Musicians Retreat, and Rhymes With Opera’s new music summer workshop.
Recently, Jamie was a member of the early music ensemble Polyhymnia. She performed with Eastern Opera of New Jersey (now disbanded) for multiple productions, including Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana and La suora zelatrice in Suor Angelica. In prior years, she was on the roster of the Kinnara Ensemble, served as a section leader of the Westfield (NJ) Presbyterian Church choir and was a member of the professional Seton Hall Chapel Choir. Jamie continues to sing at area churches when they’re in need of a strong alto!
Jamie was born and raised in New Jersey. She attended Rutgers University, graduating with a BA in Music, and currently lives in Morristown with her husband and two cats, where she works as a civic technologist (specifically, a content designer) for Coforma.