Bio

Jay Mobley is a composer, singer-songwriter, and theater artist. His music is dynamic and polystylistic, drawing on diverse influences. Mobley frequently develops new stage works, often serving as music director for new musical theater productions, with several world premieres among his credits. His score to the new musical play Who Would Be King, a postmodern re-imagining of the story of King Saul with theater company Liars & Believers, has been performed at American Repertory Theater, the Philadelphia Fringe festival, and at The Theater 511 (in a "fling" with Ars Nova) in New York City.

As a singer-songwriter, Jay sings and plays guitar in Cincinnati indie pop band Cousins, and performs frequently as a solo artist. Formerly, he fronted the band Jasper & the Rubber Policemen in New York and Boston. He is one half of the experimental improvised duo The Monk Subversive, and in 2018 toured the US from Boston to Los Angeles by bicycle in the folk duo Going S. As a sideman and theater performer, he has sung, acted, and played banjo, guitar, mandolin, piano, drums, and electronics. His music has been played by SOLI Chamber Ensemble, Cincinnati New Music, and Fredonia Guitar Quartet. He recently portrayed the role of Jacques in Liars & Believers' A Story Beyond, and sings and plays guitar as a member of Cincinnati New Music.

In his recent work, Mobley has often used concert music as a vehicle for amplifying the voices of others. His eight-voice song cycle "When I Look Back: Theme and Variations," commissioned by New England's vocal chamber ensemble Renaissance Men, together with the National Alliance on Mental Illness Massachusetts, examines the lives of men and women with lived experience of mental illness. The libretto consists of interview conversations conducted by the composer, edited for length. It is a humanizing and compassionate look into the worlds of its interview subjects. Similarly, his piece “Songs from Our Mothers,” commissioned by tenor Mishael Eusebio, takes its text from interviews conducted by Mobley and Eusebio with their mothers about experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mobley holds an MusB in composition from the State University of New York at Fredonia and an MM in composition from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.