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Jeanine Tesori

 

Jeanine Tesori has written three Tony-nominated scores for Broadway; Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, Thoroughly Modern Millie (lyrics, Dick Scanlan) at the Marquis, and Caroline, or Change (lyrics, Tony Kushner) at the Eugene O'Neill. The production of Caroline or Change at the National Theater in London received the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Her first off-Broadway musical, Violet, written with Brian Crawley, received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1997. She has been the recipient of many other honors including Drama Desk and Obie awards, and was cited by ASCAP as being the first woman composer to have “two new musicals running concurrently on Broadway.”

Ms. Tesori has composed concert material for Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, and Audra MacDonald. Her composition, The River is Wide, was hailed by the New York Times as “a remarkable interplay of music, dance and words…both requiem and celebration, reflecting the cross-currents of emotion that hang in the air of Lower Manhattan.” She composed the music for The New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of Brecht’s Mother Courage, as translated by Tony Kushner and starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. She has written songs for the movie Shrek The Third, and is the composer for the forthcoming Dreamworks Broadway production of Shrek The Musical.

Her film scores include Winds of Change for ABC, Show Business, and Wrestling With Angels. She has composed songs for Disney DVD releases Mulan II, Lilo and Stitch II, and Little Mermaid III. She has produced sixty CD's for Silver-Burdett Ginn’s Making Music and the original cast albums for Twelfth Night, Violet, and Caroline, or Change.

Ms. Tesori, a graduate of Barnard College, lives in Manhattan with her husband, Michael Rafter, and daughter, Siena.