TALENT: Playwright/Composer/Music Director

JESSE J. SANCHEZ is a sought-after collaborator in theatre, opera, TV, and film. Jesse is currently in residence as Producing Music Supervisor for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a Tony Award-winning organization that stands as one of the preeminent destinations for American regional theatre.

In 2021, Jesse was a recipient of the NAMT Frank Young Development Grant for his musical, SUEÑOS: Our American Musical (book, music, lyrics). In 2018, Sanchez was named “People to Watch” by American Theatre Magazine and nominated for an educator Grammy in 2014.

Jesse’s musicals have been a finalist for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Conference, and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. His operas and musicals have been performed or developed coast to coast at the Boston Lyric Opera, New York Theatre Barn, Arizona Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Choreography Lab, The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, The Green Room 42 (NYC), Arizona State University, and The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. As a composer, orchestrator, and arranger, his works have been heard nationally at the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, Denver Center, Long Wharf, The 24 Hour Plays, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, FOGG Theatre SF, Arizona Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, Alley Theatre, University of Texas at Austin, among others. He has contributed as a songwriter in multiple writing rooms for Netflix and is currently developing a new musical with the band, “Chicago,” commissioned by the Arizona Theatre Company, in partnership with BMG Music Group. He has music directed in professional theaters across the country including New World Stages, Denver Center, Hartford Stage, The Alley Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, Huntington Theater Company, Arizona Theatre Company, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, and many more.

Jesse holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. While at UI, Jesse studied trumpet and jazz under Dr. Vern Sielert, conducting under Dr. Michael Murphy and Professor Alan Gemberling, composition and arranging under Daniel Bukvich. Jesse is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.