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Artist
Richard Anthony Jay
12+ albums
contemporary classicalinstrumentalmodern classicalpost-rockcomposer
about
“Instrumental music in particular can communicate better than almost anything else” says English composer/pianist Richard Anthony Jay. “Without lyrics and a vocalist, the listener has to use imagination, and to feel what the music is about.” For Richard, “feeling” what music is all about is now one of the driving principles guiding his life and music career, but that hasn’t always been the case. Like many working musicians, Richard’s life was “99% music, and one percent everything else” he says. That imbalance – coupled with his need to make a living making music – soon robbed Richard of his creative inspiration and drained his musical joy to the point where he didn’t want to write his own music or listen to anyone else’s music at all. It took a series of personal and musical realizations in his 30s to get back on the path of writing and enjoying music again. Long before Richard’s “light bulb” moments, he was a self-described “unpopular child” with a hatred for school and its rigid schedules and predictability. He studied music back then, but only earned a C grade – his report cards for that class made him seem average, unlike the music professional he has become. Even with the average grade in music, Richard says he knew “from 10 years old that I wanted to work in music.” Between the age of 10 and leaving formal education at 16, Richard says he was on a voyage of self-discovery, trying to find a genre of music that he wanted work within. His childhood interests quickly we
