Jay Christy is the Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and has been a member of the Orchestra since 1992. He also served as Acting Associate Principal Second Violin from 2014-2017, and 2019-present. An active violin teacher and coach in the metropolitan Atlanta area, Mr. Christy is an Artist Affiliate at Emory University, and has taught at Georgia Tech, Reinhardt and Covenant colleges.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Christy has performed with Robert McDuffie at Mercer University, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Jonathan Carney, David Halen, the Georgian Chamber Players at Spivey Hall, Riverside Chamber Players, Emory Chamber Music Society, Vega String Quartet, Thamyris, and has two chamber music recordings with the Riverside Chamber Players and the Christy Oboe Quartet, comprised of his two sisters and brother-in-law. Since the summer of 2003 he has played in the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, WY where in 2015 he was featured in a live broadcast for NPR’s Performance Today. In 2013 he was invited to join the faculty of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina where he played Principal Second Violin for one season, and in 2022 was invited to join the Masterworks Festival.
In 2012 Mr. Christy was invited to perform with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Most and performed concerts in Cleveland, Carnegie Hall, and Miami. He has also performed with the National Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony the Minnesota Orchestra and the Naples Philharmonic. He was Assistant Concertmaster of the American Sinfonietta from 1999-2002 in Bellingham, WA, and has soloed with the National Repertory Orchestra under Otto Werner Mueller, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra under Louis Lane, the Ohio Ballet Orchestra, and the Congress of Strings Orchestra in a double concerto with Joseph Silverstein. He has also appeared as soloist with the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, Walton High School Orchestra on an Austrian tour, the Rome Symphony, Florida Space Coast Philharmonic, Florida Symphony Orchestra under Alfred Savia, and the Melbourne Community Orchestra.
Mr. Christy began studying the violin at the age of three in the Washington, D.C. area with his mother, Nancy. His other teachers include John Merrill of the Baltimore Symphony and Lev Gurevich of the Florida Symphony. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of David Cerone, David Updegraff, Victor Danchenko, and Eugene Gratovich. He received his Master of Music degree from Indiana University as a student of Franco Gulli, and later pursued orchestral studies with Stephen Majeske and Bernhard Goldschmidt of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Mr. Christy is a deacon at Christ Presbyterian Church, and resides in Marietta, Georgia with his wife Katie and seven children: Diana, Jeanette, Andrew, Allen, James, Thomas and Charlotte. In his spare time he enjoys hiking and climbing mountains.
