Jessi, also known as George, Harvey is a Montana-born freelance composer and teacher; gardener and reader; thinker and walker. Works are based in nature, integrating social curiosity, humor, and a love of knowledge; described by Seattle Mag as “full of surprises and consistently attention holding” and by commissioner Julia Lougheed as “diving into the absurd corners of the human condition-the moments where you have to laugh so you don’t cry”.
Jessi’s work, by the nature of our conversation, won first place at the 2020 Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival and proposal, fish dance, was an honorable mention for the 2020 Splinter Tongue Call for Proposals. Jessi has worked with Opera Elect, the Art Song Collaborative Project, Strange Interlude, the Onomatopoeia Trio, Karin Steven’s Dance, Julia Lougheed, Olivia Valenza, the Live Music Project and others. One of their favorite projects was the organization of THINGS THAT BREAK, a collaboration with three other women artists, all creating works based on the theme of breaking which was awarded the 4Culture Tech Specific Grant. They have had work featured at the Music by Women Festival (2021, 2019), Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival (2021), and New Music Gathering (2020, 2021). Jessi a selected composer at Unheard//of Ensemble’s Collaborative Composition Initiative (2021), Laboratoire de musique contemporaine de Montréal (2019), and the Waterloo Contemporary Music Sessions (2018). They were an artist-in-residence at the Rensing Center (2021), Open Air MT (2022), and the Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency (2022).
Outside of composition, Jessi is an avid cook, particularly of potatoes and chillies, constant learner, and watcher of the wildlife in their backyard.