Jesse Greenberg is a Queens-based percussionist, keyboardist, composer, and arts educator. Using yarn mallets and bows on glockenspiel, Jesse engages reimaginations of one of childhood’s most familiar instruments, performing with the troubadour-inspired trio Zamler-Carhart/Rauh/Greenberg, with LCollective, as a soloist, and as a glassy ruckus, an acoustic trio that weaves together modal improv, folk storytelling, and circular melodies. He is the founding percussionist and composer-in-residence with the ensemble, ShoutHouse. His music is on their debut album Cityscapes, released on New Amsterdam records in June 2019.
As a percussionist, Jesse has been featured at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, (le) Poisson Rouge, The Greene Space, the Juilliard School, Festival Les Troubadours chantent l’art roman in the Languedoc region of France, and on NPR’s New Sounds. He also performs on keyboards with artists including Tiff Ortiz and Naeemah Z. Maddox. Jesse is also one half of Circus Dreams, a lifelong project with his father, David Greenberg.
As a composer, Jesse’s work draws from maze-like medieval melodies and improvisation, often incorporating influences from visual art and nature. His music for small chamber ensembles usually emphasizes communication and sometimes contains an element of instrumental theater. His music has been featured in Piano+, CISUM’s Composing for Percussion festival, Vassar College’s ModFest, and the Harlem Arts Festival.
He gives private piano, percussion, and composition lessons and is a teaching artist in the NYC public schools through 92nd Street Y’s Discover Music program.