Ted Hearne

Born in Chicago, Ted Hearne is a composer, singer, bandleader and recording artist. Inspired by the overlay of different viewpoints and their sonic possibilities, he creates personal and multi-dimensional works that often explore unconventional interactions of text and music, and are rooted in a sense of inquiry.   

Twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Hearne has collaborated with artists of many disciplines, including Saul Williams, Erykah Badu, Dorothea Lasky, Pam Tanowitz, Damon Davis, Sanford Biggers, Rachel Perry, Ashley Tata, Patricia McGregor and Daniel Fish. Recent works of note include over and over vorbei nicht vorbei (an opera commissioned by Komische Oper Berlin); Farming (a musical-theatrical work for The Crossing, envisioned as a conversation between Jeff Bezos and colonist William Penn); Place (a fiery meditation on gentrification and displacement, written with Saul Williams); Sound from the Bench (a vocal work setting the Supreme Court oral arguments to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, with poet Jena Osman), and The Source (an oratorio setting texts by U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning and the U.S. Dept of Defense).   

Ted is a member of the composition faculty at University of Southern California. Upcoming commissions include a new orchestral work for The Royal Ballet and an operatic adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s seminal science-fiction work The Dispossessed, with Kaneza Schaal and WildUp. 

Photo by Jen Rosenstein