Top 14 Quotes & Sayings by Jeanine Tesori

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American composer Jeanine Tesori.

Last updated on April 21, 2025.

Jeanine Tesori 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 and five Tony Award nominations. 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, and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home, making them the first female writing team to win that award. She was named Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.

American - Composer | Born: November 10, 1961

Source: Wikipedia

My daughter is my greatest gift and, not to be corny, but my greatest teacher.

Jeanine Tesori

I read a lot. I especially read memoirs and biographies. It's very helpful when you're thinking about what's possible and what exists in human behavior; if it exists out there then it can exist on the stage. I really try to go to a lot of concerts. A lot of live events. I just try to keep my ears really, really open.

Jeanine Tesori

I've been really opinionated my whole life. I was raised to be opinionated. I was raised to debate at the dinner table - my father demanded it - and you had to be able to debate in a confident and clear way.

Jeanine Tesori

If you're doing something new there is always a sense of fear or foreboding, but you're in new ground and you have to get out your machete and cut a new path.

Jeanine Tesori

My early life was full of music because my sisters played the piano and I started playing at three.

Jeanine Tesori

There was a period where I dressed sort of like a mechanic and I looked really schlumpy, and I thought, "This is not who I am. This is not who I want to be." It was a very important moment for me - to not hide.

Jeanine Tesori

I realized that all you have to do is state what you need and figure out how to get it, and be kind and help other people move forward. Check your jealousy, which is always present, and the threat of the younger generation coming forward as they must do.

Jeanine Tesori

I think there are some things in music that work and don't work. That's learned from counterpoint and rhythm and theory, and they don't work if you don't want them to work.

Jeanine Tesori

The people who are going into music who hunger, they're going into pop music. There are some badass women who are ambitious and hungry and brave, and they're in pop.

Jeanine Tesori

I write to find out about how the world sings.

Jeanine Tesori

I think a lot of people get intimidated by the language of music, but everyone owns music. I think there's nothing standing in between a composer and her audience. I think a lot of people feel that way because they feel it's rarefied, but it's really not. You should feel the impact of it without being able to name it because it's ultimately a primal thing.

Jeanine Tesori

I feel like music is oceanic - there's no end to what you can discover.

Jeanine Tesori

I'd been trained as a classical musician, but also as a pop musician. My teacher made sure that everything was available.

Jeanine Tesori

I have never relied on anyone else for money since I graduated, and that made me feel grown up.

Jeanine Tesori