BIO
Yvette Janine Jackson is a composer and sound artist whose compositions have been heralded as “immersive non-visual films” (The Guardian). A Los Angeles native, Jackson was introduced to the world of tape splicing, analog synthesis, and computer music at the historic Columbia Computer Music Center in New York before winning awards for sound design in the San Francisco Bay Area. She blends these experiences into her own aesthetic of narrative soundscape composition dubbed “radio opera.”
Jackson’s electroacoustic, chamber, and orchestral music has been commissioned internationally for concert, theatre, installation, and screen. She has composed for Elisa New’s PBS series Poetry in America and Barclay DeVeau’s The Cassandra Project short film trilogy. Jackson’s projects often draw from history to examine relevant social issues. She has collaborated with historian of science and author Naomi Oreskes for the Artivism for Earth Initiative featured at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. Her album Freedom is described as “one of the most unique releases to chronicle the Black American experience” (The Wire). Recent projects include Hello, Tomorrow! for orchestra and electronics co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and American Composers Orchestra; T-Minus, A Radio Opera commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble; and Extant, an interactive composition for bass clarinet, cello, and game engine at ZKM Center for Art and Media. Her permanent installations Underground (Codes) and Destination Freedom can be experienced at Wave Farm in Acra, New York, and the International African American Museum in Charleston. Jackson performs modular synthesizers as a solo artist and formed Radio Opera Workshop to perform her compositions, debuting at the Venice Music Biennale in 2022.
MUSIC
PHOTOS
SELECTED PRESS
Yvette Janine Jackson Looks to the Cosmos in Double Bill of Radio Operas at Roulette (Donna Lee Davidson, I Care If You Listen, January 24, 2024)
Because we are black, we are making black music (Hannah Edgar, Chicago Reader, September 6, 2023)
When We Talk About Black History We Must Include Music (D’Shonda Brown, Essence, June 25, 2021)
Freedom Review (Bookmat, March 30, 2021)
Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom (Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise, March 23, 2021)
Best of Bandcamp Contemporary Classical: February 2021 (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp, March 4, 2021)
Yvette Janine Jackson’s Radio Operas are a Conversation Between Past and Present (Vanessa Ague, Bandcamp Daily, February 10, 2021)
Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom review (Jesse Dorris, Pitchfork, January 29, 2021)
ALBUM REVIEW: Yvette Janine Jackson – ‘Freedom’: two suites of free expression of the Black experience (Chris Sawle, Backseat Mafia, January 20, 2021)
Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom review – vivid voyage through hate (John Lewis, The Guardian, January 15, 2021)
Freedom: Yvette Janine Jackson as Cartographer of Sonic Expeditions (Donna Lee Davidson, I Care If You Listen, January 18, 2021)
"Freedom" Album review (The Wire Magazine issue 443, December 8, 2020)
Listen: Yvette Janine Jackson’s Destination Freedom (The Wire Magazine, November 27, 2020)
The Art Gallery in Your Mind’s Ear (Mark Weidenbaum, Disquiet, November 11, 2020)
Music professor composes pieces to immerse audiences in narrative (Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite,The Harvard Gazette, October 7, 2019)
LINKS and CONTACT
Instagram @yvettejaninejackson