Likes: Video games, Starbucks, Steven Universe, Any type of horror movie and playing with the puppies
Dislikes: Not too many of these.
Favorite Food: Sushi
Favorite Quote: “Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.” ― Sergei Rachmaninov
Jessica Saltz is a composer and pianist who has developed a versatile sound ranging from a hybrid of orchestral/electronic to atmospheric and meditative piano works. With her percussive heavy rhythms to her therapeutic melodies, her purpose is to move her audience through music. Spending most of her life as a pianist, the idea of being a composer came about when listening to James Newton Howard. Her inspiration peaked and she composed her first piano work, ‘Dreams.’ This embarked her journey as a composer and this led to her moving to Saint Paul, Minnesota to study film scoring and composition at McNally Smith College of Music.
During her time at McNally Smith, she was given an opportunity to compose for a short film competition to which her music for ‘Not Your Answer,’ by Xiaolu Wang, was selected by the MNKINO Film Festival to be performed live. A few months after the film fest, Jessica recorded her first composition in the studio provided by McNally Smith. This opened a door into the technology world which sparked her love for sound design. Some of Jessica’s best works include, ‘Psychosis’ and ‘Semper Tecum’ which were the first pieces to showcase her new skill set. Due to unfortunate circumstances, McNally Smith closed it’s doors in December of 2017 because of bankruptcy. Two weeks after receiving the news, Jessica enrolled in the composition department at Berklee College of Music to finish her degree. She flourished as a composer and for her capstone project composed and produced her first short film, ‘For You’. Jessica graduated Summa Cum Laude in September of 2018. Currently, she is completing her first album that focuses on multiple types of mental disorders such as borderline personality disorder, anxiety and sleep paralysis.