Aaron Jensen (he/him) is an award-winning Toronto-based composer, producer, performer, and clinician with a passion for collaboration, exploration, and community building. His music has been recorded and performed by GRAMMY and JUNO award-winning artists including Randy Brecker, Mariah Carey, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Ron Sexsmith, Heather Rankin and Natalie MacMaster. Jensen’s flair for vocal music, obsession with language, and penchant for interweaving musical genres can be heard throughout his body of work. Aaron had the pleasure of acting as musical director, music producer, band leader, and composer for the nine-time Emmy award winning, Schitt’s Creek. His musical services have been enlisted by Andrea Bocelli, eOne Entertainment, Bob Ezrin, and Barack and Michelle Obama. Aaron has contributed to platinum-selling, GRAMMY/JUNO award-nominated albums, and has earned several international CARA awards and nominations for his original music. He has twice been recognized by the International John Lennon Songwriting Competition, including a grand prize win for Best Jazz Composition. Jensen’s new works have been premiered by celebrated choirs – such as the Swingle Singers (UK), Zvonky Praha (CZECHIA), and Voices of Namibia (NAMIBIA) – and by symphony orchestras including the TUCCA Philharmonic (BRAZIL), Orchestra Teatro Puccini, (ITALY) and Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg (FRANCE). As a performer, he’s shared the stage with the likes of Bobby McFerrin, Gordon Lightfoot, Ben Folds, and Michael Burgess. As the Artistic Director of SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival – a seven-time consecutive “Best Festivals” honouree of Festivals & Events Ontario – Aaron worked hand-in-hand with Harbourfront Centre, Soulpepper, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, and the National Film Board; he helped launch sister festivals in the U.S., Scotland, and Mexico.
Aaron’s theatrical offerings include Armchair Confidential (Music, Lyrics, Book) which was nominated by the Playwright’s Guild of Canada for Best Musical (2023), and was named #1 Stage Play of the month by Coverfly. Armchair Confidential was workshopped at Arts Club Theatre Vancouver in 2022, and will be produced by Sheridan College in February 2025. He is currently adapting The Cat’s Meow for the stage with L.A. playwright Steven Peros, based on Peros‘ 1997 play and 2002 Lionsgate film. His original compositions and sound design will be featured in Coal Mine Theatre’s production of A Case for the Existence of God. In 2021, Jensen’s mini-musical, The Trial of Bastiano di Bologna, was produced by the WEBBY award-winning New York City musical theatre podcast, Bite-Sized Broadway featuring a cast of Broadway performers and a Renaissance-era pit band. Aaron contributed music, lyrics, orchestration, and dramaturgical support to CTC New York’s production of Henry Box Brown (2021) which was optioned for Broadway in 2022, and was directed by TONY award-winner Ben Harney. He participated as a composer/lyricist in The Musical Stage Co.’s Noteworthy and Make Me a Song programs (2019), contributed to Eclipse Theatre Company’s Theatre Lab “Held” (2018), and co-wrote the 10 minute musical, Midnight Laundromat, which was voted ‘Audience Favourite’ at Driftwood Theatre Co.’s Trafalgar 24 (2018). Jensen’s musical Everything There is to Know was workshopped at Toronto Fringe (2017). 14 Characters, with music and lyrics by Jensen, received 5-Star reviews at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2016). His first full-scale musical, O.E.D., was commissioned by Broadway North Theatre Co. in 2006 and enjoyed a two-week run at the E. A. Rawlinson Centre in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, with a fifty-person cast and full band.