Biography
J. Clay Gonzalez is a composer and music director based in Southeast Michigan. He founded and developed Regenerate!, a project dedicated to producing site-specific “regenerative immersions” that welcome people of varying backgrounds to participate in communal sound-making. Through this work, he has developed a new system of notating, composing, orchestrating, rehearsing, and presenting music in ways that enact and promote the ensemble’s humanist values. His immersions have been presented by the University Musical Society, The Third Place [MUSICFEST], and Strange Beautiful Music (New Music Detroit.)
He attended the University of Michigan for both Undergraduate and Masters degrees, studying Music Composition with Evan Chambers, Stephen Rush, Eric Santos, Kristin Kuster, and Paul Schoenfeld. Clay has composed commissioned works for the chamber ensembles Virago, Girlnoise, and Maryland-based cellist Wesley Hornpetrie. He has been featured as an Artist-in-Residence at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, Monson Arts, the University of Maryland, and The Mountain Lake Biological Station in Virginia. Alongside composing, he is an experienced educator and music copyist.
Headshots
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Artist’s Statement
I’m a sound artist, performance artist, composer, and orchestra director based in Southeast Michigan. My work today finds a space between classical, experimental, and folk traditions, and tries to create something new and inclusive there. I see the interpersonal side of music-making as the beating heart of my music. Many projects take the form of large-scale “regenerative immersions,” where a community of musicians come together to make site-specific soundscapes, inspired by participatory folk traditions and sounds of the natural world. I use all these events to explore themes of nature, death, our place in history, and how humans can find meaning in finite lives.
