He studied composition with Lawrence Moss, Andrew Imbrie and Seymour Shifrin.
He also studied composition in 1967 with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the University of California, Davis,[1] and electronic music with David Tudor and Anthony Gnazzo.
As a performer, he served as a controller of the live electronics for Stockhausen's 1967 Darmstadt collective-composition project, Ensemble,[2] and performed on synthesizer in the 25th anniversary concert of Terry Riley's In C in 1989, released as a recording in 1995 on New Albion Records CD NA071.
John Adams has cited him as an influential colleague, crediting Jenks with introducing him to Wagner[3] His composition Nagasaki won the Bourges Electronic Music Competition, and Marrying Music won the Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition award.
This article about an American composer born in the 20th century is a stub.