Bio
Jeremy Podgursky’s music has been described as soulful, vibrant, emotionally intense, imaginative, passionate, joyful, optimistic, dreamy, playful, and otherworldly. The palpable immediacy of his compositions is a remnant of his years of playing in indie rock bands, yet he composes with technical precision and a strong awareness of the classical canon. Jeremy often crafts his narratives from the quantum field where musical events are presented as memories, premonitions, and alternate realities. He is just as likely to find musical inspiration in literature, film, and dance as he is the sound of the subway or a broken HVAC unit. Jeremy is fascinated with the fragmentation of modern consciousness due to the influence of technology; this concept reveals itself in his music via repetitive, short-circuiting motifs that contrast his strong sense of lyricism. Although his primary focus is always emotional, Jeremy’s interest in musical architecture is just as likely to involve real-time construction as it does playful demolition.
A native of Louisville, KY, Jeremy Podgursky’s music has been featured in venues and festivals in the United States, Europe and Japan. His compositions have been performed, premiered, and read by groups such as Alarm Will Sound, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Present Music, Square Peg Round Hole, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Inscape, Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, Holographic, Peabody Modern Orchestra, and NewEar New Music Ensemble. Some of his awards and honors come from the American Academy Of Arts And Letters, Fromm Music Foundation Commission, Copland House Residency Award, Indiana University JSoM Dean’s Prize, Finale/American Composers Forum/Eighth Blackbird, Mizzou New Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra/Earshot, Northridge Prize For Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, and 1st place in the National SCI/ASCAP Commissioning Competition.
Along with composer Ryan Chase and conductor Ben Bolter, Jeremy is the co-founder of a new music project in Bloomington, IN called HOLOGRAPHIC. The project draws from a pool of the JSoM’s finest performers, with concerts held in alternative venues. Jeremy was the founder/singer/songwriter/guitarist of the psychedelic/indie rock band THE PENNIES. Having shared the stages with the likes of My Morning Jacket, Mike Watt, The Grifters, Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, and the Apples in Stereo, THE PENNIES entertained audiences all over the U.S. and Europe. Music by THE PENNIES has been featured in episodes of the show SHAMELESS, starring William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum, on the SHOWTIME network.
Jeremy received his B.M. and M.M. in music composition and piano from the University of Louisville. He taught music theory/aural skills and private composition lessons at the University of Louisville, and created and taught multiple after-school composition programs in Louisville-area public high schools. Currently located in Bloomington, IN, Jeremy recently completed a Jacobs School of Music Doctoral Fellowship (D.M.) at Indiana University-Bloomington, where he was an Associate Instructor in the Music Composition department. He is now serving as an adjunct faculty member in the composition department at IU-JSoM and is Visiting Artist (2016-2018) at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, CT.
