With roots in classical training, traditional fiddle music, and modern rock, Judy is a founding member of the alternative rock band, The Horse Flies. She has toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and recorded 8 albums with The Horse Flies, including releases on MCA and Rounder Records. The Horse Flies have been featured on MTV, Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered, World Cafe and Mountain Stage and have been written about in Rolling Stone, Musician Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and many other major publications. Judy composes music for film, television, and multi-media. In June 2006 she won an Emmy from The National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the category: Musical Composition/Arrangement: Special Achievement for her score for the documentary "The Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson and Wine". She also scored two interactive DVDs for the National Library of Medicine titled "Dream Anatomy" and "Changing the Face of Medicine". With her husband, Jeff Claus, who is also a member of the Horse Flies, she has scored two feature films (The Year that Trembled and Disappearances), 2 documentaries for Florentine Films/Hott Productions (Through Deaf Eyes, winner Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award 2008; and John James Aubudon: Drawn from Nature) and a documentary video that has been running for several years in the exhibit at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. With the Horse Flies she played a leading role in composing the music for two feature film scores (Where the Rivers Flow North, Producers Guild of America Nova Award, and A Stranger in the Kingdom). During the summers of 2000 and 2004, she toured with pop singer Natalie Merchant (playing with Natalie's regular band plus Horse Flies band-mate Richie Stearns). An album of the music from that tour titled "The House Carpenter's Daughter" was released in September 2003 on Myth America Records. The album's lead cut is "Sally Ann" a song by Jeff Claus which the band performed on Late Night with David Letterman in August 2004. It also appears on Ms. Merchant's newly released "Retrospective" album. Judy has played on and created string arrangements for numerous recordings for a wide variety of artists. Critics have described her work as "haunting", "gorgeous", "sepia-tone", ""stirring", "powerful", "impressive", "beautiful", "rousing" . . . She currently performs with The Horse Flies, Boy with a Fish, and several fiddle music bands. Judy welcomes projects that include:
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