Jesse Strauss

I am a percussionist, performer, accompanist, and improviser living in Nashville. Although my formal training is in orchestral instruments, chamber music, and solo marimba, I feel equally at home improvising with my bare hands. I’ve taken my peculiar collection of drums, synthesizers, and noisemakers to various Nashville-based dance companies including FALL Dance, Epiphany, Belmont Dept. of Dance, and Tennessee’s Governor's School for the Arts. As percussionist for chatterbird, I perform chamber music alongside a variety of talented instrumentalists. Our ensemble focuses on new music from around the country and local music from Nashville songwriters and instrumentalists. More recently, I’ve dabbled in creating music for percussion and processed sound with my friend and laptop wizard Alex T. Leach.

I am cofounder of Make Music Nashville, an organization that brings free outdoor concerts and participatory music to neighborhoods around the city. Read more about us and send along your ideas. I owe my musical inspiration to Sufjan Stevens, Sondre Lerche, Steve Reich, Dan Deacon, John Cage, Improv Everywhere, Tristan Perich, and J.S. Bach.

For my professional biography, click here.