As a composer, educator, researcher, community liaison, or simply an arts enthusiast, Jason Federmeyer has been actively involved in music for over 25 years. Having cultivated a variety of artistic interests and pursuits from an early age, ranging from architecture to the Grateful Dead, Federmeyer graduated from CSU Fresno with summa cum laude honors and received his MA in Music Composition from the Eastman School of Music in 2003. In 2009, he obtained his doctorate in Music Composition from Stanford University.

Along this path, Federmeyer has studied with an array of distinguished composers whose aesthetic and technical practices span the aural and intellectual gamut of contemporary music—an experience that has enabled him to create music that is demanding, vigorous, and rich with possibility. In a review of his chamber orchestra piece, inward / echo, Tom Johnson of Counting Keys Edition Wandelweiser states, “Federmeyer’s music ripples, leaps and scurries in keeping with the layered psychological implications of its title.” His most recent work, fingerless, beneath a curtain, was given its European premiere by Ensemble SurPlus in 2009.

Federmeyer’s teaching experience has been nearly as diverse as his education. He began as an undergraduate Teaching Assistant at CSU Fresno, assisting his undergraduate colleagues in courses such as an Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis and Music Theory and Literature. Continuing as a Teaching Associate at the Eastman School of Music, Federmeyer led individual weekly lessons in music composition for composition non- majors and also served as a Teaching Associate for a broad range of music theory courses at Stanford University.

The recipient of numerous fellowships, awards, and honors for his compositional and scholarly work, Federmeyer has been a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, a Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar and is a member of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and the Golden Key International Honour Society. His MA Thesis, Unifying Stylistic Difference: Polystylism in Alfred Schnittke’s String Quartet No. 3, researched while on a full fellowship to the Festival of Post-Soviet Culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was selected to be included in the literature of the Center for Russian Music, Alfred Schnittke Archive, University of London.  

In addition to his creative and scholarly work, Federmeyer has served in an arts management capacity in festival, university, and community contexts, with duties ranging from establishing and maintaining contacts within the community, to procuring funding, to producing and disseminating promotional materials.

Jason has lived in Menlo Park with his wife (a biology teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School), his two teenage daughters, and basset hound Kierkegaard since 2003. As a member of the Menlo Park community, he has also volunteered his time to coach volleyball and assist in classroom activities while his daughters were enrolled at Oak Knoll Elementary School and Hillview Middle School.

For more information about Jason Federmeyer, visit his website.