Jay Cloidt is an American composer, performer, sound designer, and audio engineer
Education
Cloidt received his Bachelor in piano performance from the University of Nebraska and his Master of Fine Arts in Electronic Music and the Recording Media from Mills College Center for Contemporary Music in 1981, studying with Robert Ashley and David Behrman.
Career
As a sound designer, he has worked with many groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Kronos Quartet and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. As a composer, Cloidt has been commissioned by such organizations as the Gary Palmer Dance Company, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and the Kronos Quartet, for whom he has written three pieces. His music typically uses electronics, is technically sophisticated, and often contains humor.
The San Francisco Chronicle has called Cloidt "The Spike Jones of the Bay Area new music scene." His music has been performed at the Venice Biennale, New Music America, and Lincoln Center.
His solo Civil Defense was released by Starkland. All-Music Guide awarded the Civil Defense four stars and wrote that the Civil Defense is “a wonderful, accessible, and yet challenging album from one of new music"s brightest lights.” Stereophile also awarded the Civil Defense four stars, describing Cloidt as "one of the few composers in the post-sampler era to fully develop that tool"s fascinating and witty potential." Other recordings appear on the MinMax label.