Jack Damon, composition (Bronxville, NY), is a composer, cellist, vocalist, pianist and aspiring conductor. A recent high school graduate, he studied composition with Ira Taxin and cello with Fred Sherry at Juilliard Pre-College and participated as cellist and apprentice conductor with the Grammy-winning New York Youth Symphony under Andrew Kim and as NYYS student-composer under Kyle Blaha. Jack has participated in summer programs including Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Atlantic Music Festival. Prior to living in New York, Jack studied cello at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Boulogne-Billancourt in France and composition with the John Adams Young Composer’s Program in Berkeley, California. Jack’s compositions have been recognized by YoungArts, ASCAP, National Young Composers Challenge, NPR’s From the Top, Community Music School of Webster University’s Young Composers Competition, and the Juilliard Pre-College Composition Competition. A Fellow with Concerts for Compassion, a nonprofit organization that facilitates cultural integration of displaced peoples, Jack has arranged Syrian, Iraqi, and Tunisian folksongs for benefit concerts. He has collaborated with the worldwide virtual orchestra, Ukrainian Music Project, and recorded with Grammy-winning Ricky Kej for UNICEF. The eclecticism of Jack’s music draws from art, literature, and science, with the ultimate goal of creating colorful harmony that evokes the imagination. This fall, Jack will be pursuing a bachelor's degree at Harvard and a master's degree in Music Composition at the New England Conservatory (under Michael Gandolfi) as part of the Harvard/NEC Dual Degree Program.