Jeanine Tesori, Young-Adult Whisperer

"How do great artists get their start? The misty-eyed will say it all begins with a dream. At Juilliard, it takes a bit more than that. On a recent gray evening, a group of drama students were in their sixth hour of rehearsals for a concert at Joe's Pub. An upright piano, several music stands, and a Gretsch drum set were globbed together in a tiny, all-white room that could pass for a sanitarium. Loose lyric sheets littered the floor. The air was tropical. The door bore a sign with the words "Tesori Sessions.""

""Tesori" was the composer Jeanine Tesori, two-time Tony winner and Obi-Wan Kenobi of the workshop. As students buzzed about the room, grabbing pencils and tuning guitars, she leaned against a back wall with one foot up, as if ready to push off. "O.K., let's do it!" Tesori shouted. One member of the group, Joel Wenhardt, from Southern California, shuffled to the piano and flopped down on the bench. He had on circus-tent-striped pants and a hat that said " Juilliard Athletics: Undefeated Since 1905." There was some confusion about the sheet music. Wenhardt stared at his pages, puzzled. "I think a jazz musician wrote these chords," he mumbled. "Let's just go through it once so we can knock it out," Tesori repeated over the chatter. She wore a typical rehearsal getup: track pants and a baggy T-shirt. A botanical tattoo crawled up her arm, and her hair was piled on top of her head."

"Four participants finally settled into their places to run through a song by Langston Lee, a twenty-year-old from Austin, Texas, who'd won Best Actor at the Jimmy Awards (a national high-school musical-theatre competition) in 2023. (Other winners include Reneé Rapp and Andrew Barth Feldman, who have since toe-tapped their way to Broadway and beyond.) Lee, who wore a crisp button-down and jeans, tossed his wavy hair, letting strands fall around his face as he adjusted his acoustic-guitar strap."

A group of Juilliard drama students spent a late rehearsal session preparing for a Joe's Pub concert under composer Jeanine Tesori's guidance. The rehearsal space was small and cluttered with instruments and lyric sheets, producing a focused, tropical atmosphere. Tesori supervised, encouraged rapid run-throughs, and offered practical direction while students adjusted chords, tuned instruments, and corrected sheet-music confusion. Participants included Joel Wenhardt, noted for eccentric attire and puzzled chord reading, and Langston Lee, a recent Jimmy Awards Best Actor winner. The environment combined discipline, mentorship, collaboration, and real-performance preparation for emerging musical-theater artists.

Read at The New Yorker