Music
For about fifteen years I worked as a touring violinist, composer, and improviser — 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, you'll find audio, video, press quotes, and photos from the archive. Click here for a full list of the shows I played between 2006 and 2024.
A 25-minute experimental opera co-written and performed with Paul Pinto of thingNY.
Conceived as music a futuristic space rescue company provides a crashed explorer to listen to while awaiting rescue. Improvised electronic music with Carlos Cotallo Solares, created over Zoom in late 2020.
Composed by Rick Burkhardt for thingNY. Loosely structured around a Passover seder, with speaking instrumentalists gathered around a table on which lies a double bass.
Music written for thingNY by group members Paul Pinto and Erin Rogers.
I was the violinist in Brooklyn-based cabaret-punk band World/Inferno from 2014 to 2020.
thingNY's first collaboratively composed experimental opera, on the theme of excess.
I was the violinist in Brooklyn-based indie rock band Food Will Win the War from 2009 to 2015.
A folk rock album recorded with Westchester-based Bill Steely and his band.
A trio led by singing cellist Valerie Kuehne, with me on violin and Alex Cohen on drums.
Manson Family Picnic was the first band I toured with - and still my mom's favorite.
Excerpt of a solo violin and electronics piece performed in Poznań, Poland.
Live performance of Jeff Young and Paul Pinto, Patriots... at Jack Space in Brooklyn, NY.
thingNY performs a movement of Rick Burkhardt's Passover at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY.
thingNY performs SubtracTTTTTTTTT, a piece created for online performance, in 2020.
thingNY performs A Series of Landscapes, their second piece created for online performance in 2020.
Teaser for NOMOZART, a LUCERNE FESTIVAL Young Performance production that premiered in September 2017 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Laura Dykes (double bass) and Jeffrey Young (violin) perform Tunnel, presented by Alia Musica in Pittsburgh, PA.
The World/Inferno Friendship Society performs at Paste Studio NYC, November 1, 2019.
Improvised electronic music for violin and guitar with Snapchat filter visuals, opening for Bedlam's reading of Romeo and Juliet, September 2020.
Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka (double bass) and Jeffrey Young (violin) at Rhizome in Washington, DC.
Valerie Kuehne and the Wasps Nests performs at Spirit Pittsburgh.
Fully improvised performance with collaborators in Poznań, Poland.
Jeff Young performs Paul Pinto's mini005, part of Paul's minis series.
Full concert recording at Punk Island Festival, NYC.
"The expressive tone of thingNY's work is universes away from Richard Wagner, but nothing surpasses their realisation of the gesamtkunstwerk ideal. Yet what they do is so earthy, so connected to experience, that they float free of historical context."
George Grella,
The Wire,
October 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 and three other musicians…"
Brian Seibert,
The New York Times,
October 2014
"…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 [composer Rick Burkhardt's] gift for storytelling makes this all something quite special."
Peter Margasak,
Bandcamp Daily,
November 2022
"The vocalist Paul Pinto…has, along with the violinist Jeffrey Young, recently released a jointly composed 25-minute opera…After satirizing the forced bonhomie of electioneering — and maybe self-promotion in general — the opera's chattering "Intro" casts a critical eye at individual expressions of taste that attempt to claim the status of political commitments…"
Seth Colter Walls,
The New York Times,
July 2018
"The verbose quality of this short opera with a long title ["…Patriots…"] 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
"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…Pinto and Young…have combined the artistic, historic, and economic to create a work that truly speaks (or sings) to us all."
Austin Franklin,
The Sybaritic Singer,
July 2018
"['…Patriots…'] is a haunting and humorous reflection on the turbulent nature of lives in America today…the dramatic political parody maintains a sense of urgency, even through its lighter moments."
Alyssa Kayser-Hirsh,
I Care If You Listen,
August 2018
"…the duo Dykes & Young set a high bar for the acts that would follow…"
Jarrett Hoffman,
clevelandclassical.com,
June 2019
"…what can only be described as what knives would sound like if they could sing…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
