Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, was born on November 10,1961 and is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater.
17 Facts About Jeanine Tesori
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Jeanine Tesori is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals and six Tony Award nominations.
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Jeanine Tesori 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, making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo.
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Jeanine Tesori was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.
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Jeanine Tesori attended Paul D Schreiber High School in Port Washington, New York.
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Jeanine Tesori is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, where she initially was pre-med but changed her major to music.
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Jeanine Tesori began her career as the substitute assistant conductor for the 1989 production of Gypsy.
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Jeanine Tesori made her credited Broadway debut as the dance arranger, associate conductor and keyboard player for The Secret Garden in 1991.
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Jeanine 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.
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Jeanine Tesori arranged the dance music for the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
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Jeanine Tesori worked as an arranger on the musical revue Dream when she became pregnant with her first child.
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Jeanine Tesori struggled with the fact that she "worked so hard to hide the fact that had a uterus", and was then arriving to rehearsals pregnant.
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Jeanine Tesori was asked to write the score for the 1998 production of Twelfth Night after being introduced to Nicholas Hytner by Ira Weitzman.
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In 2019, Jeanine Tesori was credited as voice coach on the new Steven Spielberg film of West Side Story for which Kushner wrote the screenplay based largely on the original stage musical.
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Jeanine Tesori has composed music for the films Nights in Rodanthe, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, Shrek the Third, Mulan II, and The Emperor's New Groove 2: Kronk's New Groove.
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Jeanine Tesori wrote the music for Shrek The Musical, which opened on Broadway in 2008 and for which she earned both Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for her music.
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Jeanine Tesori is divorced from Siena's father, Michael Rafter, an arranger and conductor.