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Jeanine Tesori
Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, (born November 10, 1961) is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals, six Tony Award nominations, and five Grammy Award nominations for Best Musical Theater Album. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home (shared with Lisa Kron), making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo (shared with David Lindsay-Abaire). She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.
Her major works include Kimberly Akimbo; Fun Home; Caroline, or Change; Shrek the Musical; Thoroughly Modern Millie; and Violet.
Tesori saw her first Off-Broadway production, Godspell at the Promenade, when she was fourteen. She said of the experience that she felt the sense of "I'm someplace where there's something happening, and I don't want to be anywhere else." She worked at Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts summer camp.
She attended Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, New York. She is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, where she initially was pre-med but changed her major to music.
Tesori began her career as the substitute assistant conductor for the 1989 production of Gypsy. Tesori made her credited Broadway debut as the dance arranger, associate conductor and keyboard player for The Secret Garden in 1991. Soon after, she was the associate conductor and played keyboard for the original production of The Who's Tommy, working with frequent collaborator, Des McAnuff. Tesori eventually music directed the German production of the musical, which she says gave her the courage to continue music directing. Tesori says she drew from her experience working on Tommy while writing Fun Home, and that it gave her the idea for how to bring her protagonist into her own story. She arranged the dance music for the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Tesori worked as an arranger on the musical revue Dream when she became pregnant with her first child. While pregnant, Tesori also did the incidental music arrangements and dance arrangements for the 1998 production of The Sound of Music. Tesori struggled with the fact that she "worked so hard to hide the fact that (she) had a uterus", and was then arriving to rehearsals pregnant.
In 1997 she composed the score for the Off-Broadway musical Violet, for which she won an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.
Tesori was asked to write the score for the 1998 production of Twelfth Night after being introduced to Nicholas Hytner by Ira Weitzman. Hytner heard her score for Violet and she asked her to write 60 minutes of music for the production, with 3 months to complete the score. Despite scores for plays not typically being nominated for best score at the Tony Awards, Thomas Cott ensured that people considered it, and Tesori was nominated in 1999. Next, Tesori wrote the arrangements for Swing!
In 2000, Tesori joined forces with lyricist Dick Scanlan to write eleven new songs for a stage adaptation of Thoroughly Modern Millie. A successful run at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego resulted in a transfer to Broadway in 2002, and Tesori was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music.
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Jeanine Tesori
Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, (born November 10, 1961) is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals, six Tony Award nominations, and five Grammy Award nominations for Best Musical Theater Album. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home (shared with Lisa Kron), making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo (shared with David Lindsay-Abaire). She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.
Her major works include Kimberly Akimbo; Fun Home; Caroline, or Change; Shrek the Musical; Thoroughly Modern Millie; and Violet.
Tesori saw her first Off-Broadway production, Godspell at the Promenade, when she was fourteen. She said of the experience that she felt the sense of "I'm someplace where there's something happening, and I don't want to be anywhere else." She worked at Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts summer camp.
She attended Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, New York. She is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, where she initially was pre-med but changed her major to music.
Tesori began her career as the substitute assistant conductor for the 1989 production of Gypsy. Tesori made her credited Broadway debut as the dance arranger, associate conductor and keyboard player for The Secret Garden in 1991. Soon after, she was the associate conductor and played keyboard for the original production of The Who's Tommy, working with frequent collaborator, Des McAnuff. Tesori eventually music directed the German production of the musical, which she says gave her the courage to continue music directing. Tesori says she drew from her experience working on Tommy while writing Fun Home, and that it gave her the idea for how to bring her protagonist into her own story. She arranged the dance music for the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Tesori worked as an arranger on the musical revue Dream when she became pregnant with her first child. While pregnant, Tesori also did the incidental music arrangements and dance arrangements for the 1998 production of The Sound of Music. Tesori struggled with the fact that she "worked so hard to hide the fact that (she) had a uterus", and was then arriving to rehearsals pregnant.
In 1997 she composed the score for the Off-Broadway musical Violet, for which she won an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.
Tesori was asked to write the score for the 1998 production of Twelfth Night after being introduced to Nicholas Hytner by Ira Weitzman. Hytner heard her score for Violet and she asked her to write 60 minutes of music for the production, with 3 months to complete the score. Despite scores for plays not typically being nominated for best score at the Tony Awards, Thomas Cott ensured that people considered it, and Tesori was nominated in 1999. Next, Tesori wrote the arrangements for Swing!
In 2000, Tesori joined forces with lyricist Dick Scanlan to write eleven new songs for a stage adaptation of Thoroughly Modern Millie. A successful run at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego resulted in a transfer to Broadway in 2002, and Tesori was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music.