Composer and pianist Jack Perla survived youth in Staten Island, New York thanks to his parents’ “Auto-Changing LP Player”. It put Sergio Mendes, Beniamino Gigli, Miles, Rachmaninoff, Erroll Garner, Heifetz, Stan Getz, and more, together in a pre-iTunes mash-up that challenged his ears and left him curious. Starting lessons around nine, Jack took over the family’s Hammond organ and began deciphering rhythms and chords from the music he heard on radio. He switched to the piano and began writing down his own melodies in block letters in a school notebook, and was increasingly intrigued by his mom’s classical discs. He added rock and roll to the record pile - Zeppelin, Beatles, The Who, and later, ephemera like Gentle Giant and King Crimson. In high school he formed a prog cover band, studied theory, and kept thinking about those classical records, with their compositions unfolding across an entire side.
Jack moved to Brooklyn and attended NYU and the Manhattan School of Music, studying with John Corigliano and Ludmila Ulehla. He formed Music Without Walls with violinist Mark Feldman, saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, cellist Erik Friedlander, percussionist Kory Grossman and bassist John Goldsby. He wanted the pocket and feel of a jazz group playing his “classical” compositions. He got more - his musicians were terrific improvisers and brought their tradecraft to the themes, harmonies and cycles in his music, blurring the “uptown/downtown” divide that typified mid-eighties/nineties new music. Jack led the group through several seasons of New York area concerts before moving to New Haven for a DMA in composition at the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick and Lukas Foss.
After New Haven Jack moved to Oakland, CA, continuing to hone his reputation for cross-fertilizing jazz and classical music. He taught improvisation, piano and composition for the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley, and worked extensively with Michael Morgan and the Oakland Symphony, visiting public schools throughout Alameda county to talk with kids about classical music and jazz, symphonic and improvised music. He released his first jazz recording, “Swimming Lessons for the Dead”, which included “Roman Candles”, winner of the Thelonious Monk Institute’s Jazz Composers Award. Jack has performed at the Texaco New York Jazz Festival, Knitting Factory, Tampere Jazz Festival, Big Sur, Monterey and Pacifica Jazz Festivals, in Japan & India, and at the Millennium Festival in London. He’s played and recorded with George Brooks and Zakir Hussain, jazz-bassoon virtuoso Paul Hanson, guitarist Andre Bush, and Afro-pop bandleader Ken Okulolu. His third jazz recording, “Enormous Changes”, was released in 2015 on Origin Records and includes “Swimming Upstream”, winner of a John Lennon Songwriter’s Award.
Jack’s operas include “Shalimar & Boonyi”, libretto by Rajiv Joseph, (Opera Theater of St. Louis, 2016), “An American Dream”, libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo (Seattle Opera, 2015), “Jonah & the Whale”, libretto by Velina Hasu-Houston (Los Angeles Opera, 2014), “Love/Hate”, libretto by Rob Bailis (ODC Theatre & The San Francisco Opera Center, 2012), “Courtside”, libretto by Eugenie Chan and “River of Light”, libretto by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Houston Grand Opera, 2010, 2011). Since its premier at Seattle Opera, “An American Dream” has been produced by Opera Maine, Anchorage Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Virginia Opera, and in 2022 heads into productions at Kentucky Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Idaho and The New England Conservatory of Music.
Jack has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, TwoSense, MATA, The Oakland Symphony and The San Francisco Symphony. He’s the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Thelonious Monk Institute, American Composers Forum, New Music USA, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Argosy Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Paul Mellon Foundation, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Yaddo, Opera Fusion (Cincinnati Opera), Opera America, the MacDowell Colony and American Opera Projects. He lives in Oakland and remains active composing, performing and recording opera, jazz, chamber and symphonic music.
Jack moved to Brooklyn and attended NYU and the Manhattan School of Music, studying with John Corigliano and Ludmila Ulehla. He formed Music Without Walls with violinist Mark Feldman, saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, cellist Erik Friedlander, percussionist Kory Grossman and bassist John Goldsby. He wanted the pocket and feel of a jazz group playing his “classical” compositions. He got more - his musicians were terrific improvisers and brought their tradecraft to the themes, harmonies and cycles in his music, blurring the “uptown/downtown” divide that typified mid-eighties/nineties new music. Jack led the group through several seasons of New York area concerts before moving to New Haven for a DMA in composition at the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick and Lukas Foss.
After New Haven Jack moved to Oakland, CA, continuing to hone his reputation for cross-fertilizing jazz and classical music. He taught improvisation, piano and composition for the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley, and worked extensively with Michael Morgan and the Oakland Symphony, visiting public schools throughout Alameda county to talk with kids about classical music and jazz, symphonic and improvised music. He released his first jazz recording, “Swimming Lessons for the Dead”, which included “Roman Candles”, winner of the Thelonious Monk Institute’s Jazz Composers Award. Jack has performed at the Texaco New York Jazz Festival, Knitting Factory, Tampere Jazz Festival, Big Sur, Monterey and Pacifica Jazz Festivals, in Japan & India, and at the Millennium Festival in London. He’s played and recorded with George Brooks and Zakir Hussain, jazz-bassoon virtuoso Paul Hanson, guitarist Andre Bush, and Afro-pop bandleader Ken Okulolu. His third jazz recording, “Enormous Changes”, was released in 2015 on Origin Records and includes “Swimming Upstream”, winner of a John Lennon Songwriter’s Award.
Jack’s operas include “Shalimar & Boonyi”, libretto by Rajiv Joseph, (Opera Theater of St. Louis, 2016), “An American Dream”, libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo (Seattle Opera, 2015), “Jonah & the Whale”, libretto by Velina Hasu-Houston (Los Angeles Opera, 2014), “Love/Hate”, libretto by Rob Bailis (ODC Theatre & The San Francisco Opera Center, 2012), “Courtside”, libretto by Eugenie Chan and “River of Light”, libretto by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Houston Grand Opera, 2010, 2011). Since its premier at Seattle Opera, “An American Dream” has been produced by Opera Maine, Anchorage Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Virginia Opera, and in 2022 heads into productions at Kentucky Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Idaho and The New England Conservatory of Music.
Jack has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, TwoSense, MATA, The Oakland Symphony and The San Francisco Symphony. He’s the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Thelonious Monk Institute, American Composers Forum, New Music USA, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Argosy Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Paul Mellon Foundation, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Yaddo, Opera Fusion (Cincinnati Opera), Opera America, the MacDowell Colony and American Opera Projects. He lives in Oakland and remains active composing, performing and recording opera, jazz, chamber and symphonic music.