Biography
Christopher Jessup is a multi award-winning composer and pianist whose music has been hailed as “lovely” (The New York Times), “imaginative” (Fanfare), and “ethereal” (Textura). With a catalogue spanning orchestral, chamber, choral, and solo works, Jessup revels in capturing a wide range of emotions in his music, especially in miniature form. Jessup draws inspiration from poetry, astronomy, and philosophy, creating works that are evocative, compelling, and deeply meaningful.
Jessup’s music has been performed and recorded by leading ensembles and soloists such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Brno Contemporary Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra, multi GRAMMY® Award-winning choir The Crossing, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Kühn Choir of Prague, the National Sawdust Ensemble, pianists Nadia Shpachenko and Allison Brewster Franzetti, violinist Kevin Zhu, violist Brett Deubner, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, flutist Lindsey Goodman, and countless others. Jessup’s works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, and other notable venues throughout North America and Europe. His music has aired on NPR and Classic FM Radio, the latter of which praised him as a “young classical star.”
Highlights from the 2024-2025 season include album releases with the London Symphony Orchestra and The Crossing, the premiere of a composition for solo flute at Carnegie Hall, and a performance by the New York Virtuoso Singers. Jessup’s 2025-2026 season includes a second recording by The Crossing, a commission for flutist Lindsey Goodman and pianist Clare Longendyke, and the premiere of a work commissioned by the Impulse New Music Festival in Los Angeles.
As a pianist, Jessup has concertized extensively throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Italy and has performed at Carnegie Hall as a solo pianist on numerous occasions. In 2020, his performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 459 with the Camerata Artists Orchestra at Merkin Hall in New York was lauded as “an absolutely breathtaking performance” (Interlude).
Jessup has received the American Prize in Composition, a National Sawdust BluePrint Fellowship, two Global Music Awards, three Clouzine International Music Awards, and top prizes in the Bradshaw & Buono, Princeton, Manhattan, and Metropolitan Youth Orchestra’s Emerging Composers competitions.
Jessup studied at The Juilliard School, attending both the college and pre-college. His teachers included Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner and pianist Jerome Lowenthal. Jessup resides in New York City.
