Classical crossover tenor Jay Dref inspires audiences with his passionate, transcendent voice. His uplifting, timeless interpretations of classic standards and modern material has quickly made him one of the premier vocalists of his generation. Reviewers have called him “Groban-like” and his music has become very popular on classical crossover and adult contemporary playlists on Spotify where he has over 1oo,ooo listeners in 157 different countries.

Jay studied classical music and opera at Eastman School of Music, where he received the Allen Award for Best Vocalist. That same year, he received the Young Musicians Award from the Buffalo (New York) Philharmonic Orchestra. Committed to becoming a professional artist, he auditioned for the prestigious Juilliard School and was awarded a full scholarship.

Jay recently traveled to Greece, where he was a guest performer at the Sani Festival as well as on a Seabourn Cruise of the Greek Isles. In Fall 2023, he performed at the prestigious International Opera Festival in Riyadh. For the past three years, Jay has been invited to join global recording artist and world’s best selling soprano Sarah Brightman on her critically-acclaimed ‘A Christmas Symphony’ Tour, which took him to cities in the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. In October and November 2022, he also joined Ms. Brightman at the iconic Venetian Las Vegas and performed at sold out arenas throughout Mexico as a guest during her incredible ‘A Starlight Symphony’ tour. During the COVID pandemic, he participated in online concerts sponsored by Classical Crossover Magazine. Jay was asked to perform at a private event for Bing Crosby’s son in Atlanta, Georgia in 2019 and in 2018 he was a featured artist at Live in the Vineyard, a national event for radio programmers held by invitation only in Napa Valley, California.

Jay is a popular soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and has been a featured performer with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra and at Lincoln Center. He has also performed at the Winspear Opera House, the Ryman Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall, The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, The Chautauqua Institution, The Great Lawn at the AKG Art Museum, Artpark, The Burchfield Penney Art Center and many other venues.

In 2020 Jay released an original duet with Italian soprano Angelica Volpi, L'Amore e' un Attimo, which has remained a popular choice on his digital music platforms. His most recent release, You Make the Angels Smile was released globally in late 2023. Previously, he collaborated with songwriting team Lauren Christy and Stephan Moccio on his debut single Taxi in the Rain. Moccio, who is a Grammy-nominated composer producer and songwriter and has also worked with Ms. Brightman, praised Jay as the “best of the best,” and Christy described him as a “really special singer.”

 Musically fluent in five languages — English, French, Italian, German and Russian— he continues to use music to offer others the gift of escape to places of true beauty.