Jessika Kenney

Jessika Kenney (b. 1976 in Spokane, WA) is a vocalist and composer/improviser supported by a devotion to the living practice of the traditional vocal arts of Classical Persian Avaz and Central Javanese Sindhenan. Her on-going, genre-defying collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and composer/arranger/improviser Eyvind Kang has been described as "work of delicate beauty" and includes 2011 and 2013 releases on the Ideologic Organ label curated by Stephen O'Malley.
Kenney has performed the vocal works of John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Tadao Sawai, as well as collaborating with many current composers and conceptualists on vocal music. Connecting back to her roots in punk performance, in recent years she been involved in recording for experimental rock and minimalist offshoots of metal genres. Her own compositions focus on the translation of melodic nuance and revelatory atmospheres found in classical poetry. Kenney studies and performs Classical Persian music with Ostad Hossein Omoumi and teaches voice at Cornish College of the Arts.