Jeanine Tesori
Short Bio:
Jeanine Tesori is one of the most influential and inventive composers creating music today, with a genre-spanning body of work that includes opera, musical theatre, and film. She is a two-time recipient of the Tony Award® for Best Original Score and a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and her operas have been presented by Washington National Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, and more.
Tesori’s operas include A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (libretto by Tony Kushner); The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me (libretto by J.D. McClatchy); Blue (libretto by Tazewell Thompson), which received the MCANA Award for Best New Opera; and Grounded (libretto by George Brant). She is one of the first women to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera.
In the 2025-2026 season, Tesori serves as Lincoln Center’s Visionary Artist, with highlights including a staged concert performance of Blue, panel discussions, large-scale community performances, and campus-wide collaborations.
She currently serves as Professor in the Practice of Music and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at Yale University and as a Creative Associate at the Juilliard School. Tesori’s classical catalog is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
August 2025
Long Bio:
Jeanine Tesori is one of the most influential and inventive composers creating music today, with a genre-spanning body of work that includes opera, musical theatre, and film. She is a two-time recipient of the Tony Award® for Best Original Score and a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and her operas have been presented by Washington National Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, and more.
Tesori’s operas confront urgent social themes while embracing musical richness and dramatic intensity. Her most recent opera Grounded was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and co-produced by Washington National Opera, and premiered in spring 2023. Based on George Brant’s eponymous play, it tells the story of a US Air Force pilot reassigned to drone warfare after an unexpected pregnancy. With Grounded, Tesori became one of the first women to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera.
Tesori's 2016 opera Blue, with a libretto by Tazewell Thompson, won the Music Critics Association of North America Award for Best New Opera in 2020. The work explores the devastating impact of police violence on a Black family, blending contemporary opera with gospel and jazz idioms. Other operas include A Blizzard on the Marblehead Neck (2010), created with Tony Kushner, which premiered at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2011, directed by Francesca Zambello; and The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me, a family opera with libretto by J.D. McClatchy and based on the book by Jeanette Winterson, which premiered in 2013 at Washington National Opera.
In the 2025-2026 season, Tesori serves as Lincoln Center’s Visionary Artist, with highlights including a staged concert performance of Blue co-presented by the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and Lincoln Center Theater, as well as panel discussions and large-scale community performances.
Tesori has been the recipient of various honors, including the 2025 Medal of Distinction from Barnard College (her alma mater), and the Olivier, Drama Desk, and Obie awards. Her acclaimed musicals include Kimberly Akimbo, Fun Home, Soft Power, Caroline, or Change, Violet, Shrek the Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Twelfth Night.
In addition to her work as a composer, Tesori is the founding Artistic Director of New York City Center's ENCORES! OFF-CENTER series and the Co-Founder of tall popPy, inc, an artist-led social enterprise that seeks to instigate systemic change in theatre. She currently serves as Professor in the Practice of Music and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at Yale University and as a Creative Associate at the Juilliard School. Tesori’s classical catalog is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
August 2025