Jeff Olmsted
The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and chamber Chorus performed the world premiere of "Songs of Rumi" in October 2009. The piece for voices, winds, strings and percussion re-visits some of the songs on Jeff's 2002 CD "Don't Go Back To Sleep". Neal Gittleman conducted; Grace Olmsted was the alto soloist.
Jeff's musical adaptation of Moliere's "Tartuffe" was selected for a staged reading in the fall of 2007 by the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative.
The producer/composer has a long-time interest in the creation and promotion of “inspirational pop”-music in a pop style with a sacred function: to praise God, to express unity, to make joyful noise. In 1993, Jeff founded the Interfaith Choir, which grew out of the New York City’s Interfaith Fellowship. Over the next twelve years, the Choir developed a large repertoire of inspirational and devotional music from many different religious and spiritual traditions, and performed at the Open Center, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. Peter’s Church at CitiCorp, the World Trade Center and Town Hall, in addition to weekly performances at worship services. The Choir also developed original material by Jeff and other choir members, including Frank Coppola and Mindy Rosengarten, Laura Warfield, and Kim Lesley. Some of this work is represented on the CD’s STEP INTO THE LIGHT and KEEP HOPE ALIVE.
The National Endowment for the Arts funded the development of THE EARTH AND ME, an ecologically-themed oratorio for puppets and dancers, which he composed with Sandra Robbins for the award-winning Shadow Box Theatre. Jeff created the popular CHORUS IN MIRACLES chants based on lessons from the Course In Miracles Workbook.
Jeff is a Yale graduate. His teachers there included Maury Yeston, Lehmann Engel, John Mehegan and Joan Panetti.
With his wife Julie, he wrote and performed JEFF & JEWEL’S NEW AGE BLUES REVUE, a songs and comedy cabaret show nominated for seven MAC awards by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets, and performed in seven states during the eighties.
After many years in the New York City area, Jeff and Julie recently moved to Northampton, Mass. (his hometown) Julie is the pastor of First Congregational Church of Hatfield.