JEANINE TESORI is a composer of musical theater, opera, and film. She is a two-time recipient of the Tony Award for Best Score and a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and six-time Grammy Award nominee. In 2015, she and Lisa Kron became the first female team to win the Tony for Best Score for Fun Home. Her other works include Kimberly Akimbo (with David Lindsay-Abaire); Soft Power (David Henry-Hwang); Caroline, or Change (Tony Kushner); Mother Courage and Her Children (Tony Kushner); Twelfth Night (LCT), Violet (Brian Crawley); Thoroughly Modern Millie (Dick Scanlan); and Shrek The Musical (David Lindsay-Abaire). For her opera, Grounded (with librettist George Brant), she became one of the first two women to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, and the first woman in its history to open a season. Her operas include A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (Tony Kushner); The Lion, The Unicorn and Me (J. D. McClatchy); and Blue (Tazewell Thompson), which received the MCANA Award for Best New Opera. Tesori is the founding Artistic Director of New York City Center’s Encores! Off-Center Series. She is the co-creator of the Cast Album Project, with Taneisha Duggan and Anne Kauffman, and tall popPy, a mentoring and micro-financing initiative co-founded with Darren Biggart and Torya Beard. She was the Supervising Vocal Producer on Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and wrote the score for numerous Disney animated sequels, including Mulan 2 (with Alexa Junge). Creative Associate at Juilliard, and a recipient of the Barnard Medal of Distinction 2025. Graduate of Columbia University and a Professor in the Practice at Yale. Proud member of The Dramatists Guild.
