Biography

Composer and conductor John Jesensky received a bachelor’s degree in composition from the Hartt School of Music, where he studied with Stephen Gryc, David Macbride, Larry Alan Smith, and film composer Joseph Turrin, among others. After completing his undergraduate studies, Mr. Jesensky began to focus on scoring for film. While attending New York University’s film scoring program, he studied privately with renowned film orchestrators Sonny Kompanek and Ira Newborn. On receiving his master’s degree from the Scoring for Film and Multimedia program at NYU, Mr. Jesensky was awarded the Elmer Bernstein Award for Film Composition. During his tenure at NYU, he also won the Skirball Film Scoring Competition for his score to Michael Daugherty’s short Season’s Greetings.

Based in Los Angeles, Mr. Jesensky currently tours the globe, conducting major orchestras in performance for CineConcerts and AVEX Classics, and bringing fully restored film scores to audiences worldwide. Shows in production include Harry Potter: In Concert, Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage, Amadeus, and The Godfather: Live. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.

Mr. Jesensky is also a freelance film composer, scoring short and feature-length films as well as trailer and source music for leading production companies. Several of his short scores have made appearances and won awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival, Bare Bones Film Festival, and La Gona Film Festival, among others. A recent short was selected to appear at the Los Angeles Film Festival, as well as the Newport Beach Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Hollyshorts Film Festival, and the DC Film Festival.

(11/2022)