Bio
Gay Pearson received a B.M. in applied piano from Lawrence University in 1965 and a B.S. in Meteorology from Purdue University in 1983.
During her 12 years of employment as Sr. Environmental Specialist in air quality evaluation at NJDEP, she started studying jazz harmony, theory and improvisation with teachers in the Philadelphia area, which culminated with the brilliant contemporary jazz pianist Jim Ridl of Trenton NJ. During that time she performed with the local big bands, combos at coffee houses, museums and bookstores in the Princeton area, and cocktail piano at restaurants and private parties. Between 1997 and '99 Gay self-produced three releases, and in 2004, her last studio release "Sea Journey-So Far Away".
Tyrone Brown commissioned her Neo-Baroque arrangement of Romberg's famous standard
"Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" for his 2000 chamber jazz release "Song of the Sun".
Gay's original arrangement can be heard on her 1998 release "Alone, Independent and Unresolved".
Since relocating to Maine in 2004 she performed on Rich Tozier's Friday night live jazz show in June 2005. From 2005-2010 she taught classical and jazz piano and theory at the Portland Conservatory.
From late 2007 through 2017 she studied with Armenian jazz pianist/composer Vardan Ovsepian, first at the Musical Suite in her home town of Newburyport MA, then via Skype. From 2011-13 Gay occasionally performed with the jazz vespers ensemble at the Unitarian Church, and from 2011-2015 performed her compositions for the annual Back Cove Contemporary Composers Festivals.
From 2012-2016 Gay presented annual chamber jazz concerts of her compositions and jazz standards in Newburyport. Her 2014 and 2015 concerts "A Sinister Endeavor" and "Goin' Home-A Retrospective" respectively, were released through PARMA on bigroundrecords.com. Her 2016 concert "Quintessence" was broadcast on CTN, Portland's Community TV station.
From April-August 2017 Gay had lessons first with jazz and classical pianist/composer Jesse Feinberg of Bath, ME., then jazz pianist Tom Snow of Yarmouth, ME.
"Pearson gives her audience a double barrel of swinging excitement that's married to a love of the lyrical melody".
-Jim Santella, Cadence 1998
During her 12 years of employment as Sr. Environmental Specialist in air quality evaluation at NJDEP, she started studying jazz harmony, theory and improvisation with teachers in the Philadelphia area, which culminated with the brilliant contemporary jazz pianist Jim Ridl of Trenton NJ. During that time she performed with the local big bands, combos at coffee houses, museums and bookstores in the Princeton area, and cocktail piano at restaurants and private parties. Between 1997 and '99 Gay self-produced three releases, and in 2004, her last studio release "Sea Journey-So Far Away".
Tyrone Brown commissioned her Neo-Baroque arrangement of Romberg's famous standard
"Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" for his 2000 chamber jazz release "Song of the Sun".
Gay's original arrangement can be heard on her 1998 release "Alone, Independent and Unresolved".
Since relocating to Maine in 2004 she performed on Rich Tozier's Friday night live jazz show in June 2005. From 2005-2010 she taught classical and jazz piano and theory at the Portland Conservatory.
From late 2007 through 2017 she studied with Armenian jazz pianist/composer Vardan Ovsepian, first at the Musical Suite in her home town of Newburyport MA, then via Skype. From 2011-13 Gay occasionally performed with the jazz vespers ensemble at the Unitarian Church, and from 2011-2015 performed her compositions for the annual Back Cove Contemporary Composers Festivals.
From 2012-2016 Gay presented annual chamber jazz concerts of her compositions and jazz standards in Newburyport. Her 2014 and 2015 concerts "A Sinister Endeavor" and "Goin' Home-A Retrospective" respectively, were released through PARMA on bigroundrecords.com. Her 2016 concert "Quintessence" was broadcast on CTN, Portland's Community TV station.
From April-August 2017 Gay had lessons first with jazz and classical pianist/composer Jesse Feinberg of Bath, ME., then jazz pianist Tom Snow of Yarmouth, ME.
"Pearson gives her audience a double barrel of swinging excitement that's married to a love of the lyrical melody".
-Jim Santella, Cadence 1998
Awards
Of the few compositions I submitted to the American Composers Forum and Composer's Voice for performance competitions, "Density Gradient" was selected by The Verismo Trio for their October 24 2015 concert at U. of Wyoming. My 2014 jazz trio piece "Decomposition" was chosen to be choreographed for the MaD circle dance program July 13 2014 in NYC.
Concerts
The 2012 concert was all original works, for different combinations of flute, piano, cello, bass and drums. Some pieces were strictly for jazz piano trio. My sister Lea, the flutist, brought her interpretive skills which were useful to my music, as I often don't write in 4/4 or 8 measure phrases. I had had sessions with her drummer Phil McGowan for about 2 years previous to the concert series, to learn more techniqes and approaches to interacting with a combo, which paid off for my jazz compositions.
The 2013 concert "Floating On Waves" was a mix of jazz standards (3 of which were my reharmonizations) and my new jazz and classical pieces composed specifically for that concert. My featured quintet work was "Floating On Waves"
For the 2014 concert "A Sinister Endeavor", the featured quintet work was my arrangement of Steve Swallow's "Ladies and Mercedes". The rest was a mix of jazz standards 6 new originals (including a one minute solo piano piece), and arrangements of a couple of contemporary pop and classical composers' music, and a reading of a Bert and I story to free improvisations, by bass and drums.
For the 2015 concert I added tenor sax player Tracy McMullen, featuring only one sextet, where I revisited my classical arrangement with six reharmonizations of the famous jazz standard "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." Each reharmonization was a different duet combination of flute, synthesized trumpet (on keyboard), cello, and bass.
The 2016 concert "Quintessence" I eliminated the cello and kept the sax. The music was mostly my originals, plus two contemporary jazz charts I had transcribed. The featured quintet work was my original "Lower and Upper Level Divergence" .
The 2013 concert "Floating On Waves" was a mix of jazz standards (3 of which were my reharmonizations) and my new jazz and classical pieces composed specifically for that concert. My featured quintet work was "Floating On Waves"
For the 2014 concert "A Sinister Endeavor", the featured quintet work was my arrangement of Steve Swallow's "Ladies and Mercedes". The rest was a mix of jazz standards 6 new originals (including a one minute solo piano piece), and arrangements of a couple of contemporary pop and classical composers' music, and a reading of a Bert and I story to free improvisations, by bass and drums.
For the 2015 concert I added tenor sax player Tracy McMullen, featuring only one sextet, where I revisited my classical arrangement with six reharmonizations of the famous jazz standard "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." Each reharmonization was a different duet combination of flute, synthesized trumpet (on keyboard), cello, and bass.
The 2016 concert "Quintessence" I eliminated the cello and kept the sax. The music was mostly my originals, plus two contemporary jazz charts I had transcribed. The featured quintet work was my original "Lower and Upper Level Divergence" .