Music
For about fifteen years I worked as a violinist, composer, and touring musician — classical, rock, experimental, and a lot of things in between. I played in an experimental opera ensemble, a cabaret-punk band, various duos, and solo. I toured the US and Europe, studied under Pierre Boulez, and appeared on over 50 albums. Below is a partial archive.
Composed by Rick Burkhardt for thingNY. Loosely structured around a Passover seder, featuring a sextet of speaking instrumentalists relating stories of escape. I was a founding member of thingNY from 2008, collaboratively composing and performing multiple works. We premiered at HERE Arts Center, Lincoln Center, and venues across the US and Europe.
Conceived as music a futuristic space rescue company provides a crashed explorer to listen to while awaiting rescue. Improvised electronic music for violin and guitar, created over Zoom in late 2020.
A 25-minute opera co-written and performed with Paul Pinto. Full title: "Jeff Young and Paul Pinto, Patriots, Run for Public Office on a Platform of Swift and Righteous Immigration Reform, Lots of Jobs, and a Healthy Environment." Covered in the NY Times; the Sybaritic Singer called it perhaps one of the most relevant contemporary operas of the 21st century.
I was the violinist in World/Inferno from 2007 to 2021. We toured the US and Europe, played the Late Show with David Letterman and Rachael Ray, and released multiple albums on Alternative Tentacles and other labels.
More
Food Will Win the War — unremarkable (indie rock)
Food Will Win the War — A False Sense of Warmth
Valerie Kuehne & the Wasps Nests — Noophelia
Dream Zoo
Capillary Action — So Embarrassing
Food Will Win the War — A False Sense of Warmth
Valerie Kuehne & the Wasps Nests — Noophelia
Dream Zoo
Capillary Action — So Embarrassing
50+ albums total across Innova, Alternative Tentacles, Tzadik, Gold Bolus, and others. Full discography to come.
Video by Zach Herchen, perfectly synced to the album takes.
Trailer for the piece that became my last performance, February 2024 in Santa Cruz.
Improvised electronic music for violin and guitar with Snapchat filter visuals, opening for Bedlam's reading of Romeo and Juliet. September 2020.
More video to come.
"thingNY has arguably become one of the most important and artistically fearless musical theater groups in the world…the mix of instrumental and verbal virtuosity with the composer's gift for storytelling makes this all something quite special."
Peter Margasak,
Bandcamp Daily,
November 2022
"The expressive tone of thingNY's work is universes away from Richard Wagner, but nothing surpasses their realisation of the gesamtkunstwerk ideal."
George Grella,
The Wire,
October 2020
"The verbose quality of this short opera with a long title harkens back to other textually dense pieces…But this micro-opera is more antic than anything written by [Robert Ashley]."
Seth Colter Walls,
The New York Times,
June 2020
"At New York Live Arts in Chelsea on Thursday, the tension was kept high by Jeffrey Young's high-modernist score, played live by the composer on violin…the music keeps signaling distress."
Brian Seibert,
The New York Times,
October 2014
"Created in 2011, '…Patriots, Run for Public Office…' is perhaps one of the most relevant contemporary operas of the 21st Century, and is worth your undivided attention."
Austin Franklin,
The Sybaritic Singer,
July 2018
"Young's music evokes a sense that this is what it would sound like if Willy Wonka devoted himself to music instead of interior design."
Johanna Armstrong,
Fergus Falls Daily Journal,
March 2019
"The committed musician, composer, performer and singer turns the music world upside down."
Land Steiermark,
Styria-Artist-in-Residence profile,
2019
"the duo Dykes & Young set a high bar for the acts that would follow."
Jarrett Hoffman,
clevelandclassical.com,
June 2019
Additional coverage in The New Yorker, Washington Post, I Care If You Listen, Lucid Culture, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Tucson Weekly, Capital Public Radio, and Catsynth.
A partial archive. View the full archive →
2024
Feb 24 — thingNY performs Jay Afrisando's [opera captions] at Indexical, Santa Cruz, CA
2023
May 26 — thingNY performs [opera captions] at HERE Arts Center, New York, NY
2022
Nov 4 — thingNY Passover album release watch party on YouTube
Oct 29 — thingNY at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Oct 20 — Picard & Picard album release at 2223 FISH, Philadelphia, PA
Sep 4 — thingNY at Coffey Street Studio, Brooklyn, NY
2021
May — thingNY premieres Dear Nancine, multimedia piece by mail (Look + Listen Festival)
Apr 15 — Picard & Picard opens Oh My Ears Festival, Phoenix, AZ (via Zoom)
2020
Dec 12 — Solo, Kanack School benefit livestream
Oct 31 — World/Inferno Friendship Society Hallowmas Q, Brooklyn, NY
Sep 15 — Duo with Carlos Cotallo Solares opening for Bedlam on Zoom
Jul 10–11 — thingNY premieres A Series of Landscapes on Zoom (HERE Arts Center)
Apr 24–26 — thingNY premieres SubtracTTTTTTTTT (co-presented with MATA)
2019
Sep–Oct — Two-month Styria-Artist-in-Residence, Graz, Austria
Jun — Dykes & Young at Re:Sound Festival, Cleveland, OH
Mar — Solo residency, New York Mills Cultural Center, MN
Feb–Mar — 13-show solo tour: CA, AZ, NM, CO, WY, UT, NV
2018
…Patriots… US album release tour with Paul Pinto
2006–2017
Hundreds of shows including Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Salle Pleyel Paris, Severance Hall Cleveland, Late Show with David Letterman, Rachael Ray, and many more. US and European tours with World/Inferno Friendship Society, thingNY, Food Will Win the War, Manson Family Picnic, Slow Six, Streams of Whiskey, and others. Four summers at the Lucerne Festival Academy under Pierre Boulez. Two tours of China. Full archive to come.