TED HEARNE (b.1982, Chicago) 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.

The New York Times has praised Mr. Hearne for his “tough edge and wildness of spirit,” and “topical, politically sharp-edged works.” Pitchfork called Hearne’s work “some of the most expressive socially engaged music in recent memory — from any genre,” and Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Hearne’s music “holds up as a complex mirror image of an information-saturated, mass-surveillance world, and remains staggering in its impact.”

Hearne’s Sound From the Bench, a cantata for choir, electric guitars and drums setting texts from U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments and inspired by the idea of corporate personhood, was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. Place, Hearne’s work written with poet Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor, was nominated for two GRAMMY Awards and was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize.

Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Barbican Centre and Beth Morrison Projects, and scored for 18 instrumentalists and 6 vocalists, Place was premiered to critical acclaim in October 2018 in Fall 2018 the BAM Next Wave Festival. “‘Place’ takes shape in songs that emerge like a graffiti mural as repetitive gestures gradually bloom into vibrant, brash statements in high-volume color. The six singers bring with them deep familiarity with diverse vocal styles… but it was impossible to ignore the presence of the real Mr. Hearne at his command post conducting the musicians, manipulating the sound and driving the auto-da-fé of his own orchestration… It always felt as if Hearne was questioning his own comfort and — in the final moment — his own power” (The New York Times).

Hearne’s oratorio The Source sets text from the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs, along with words by Chelsea Manning (the U.S. Army private who leaked those classified documents to WikiLeaks), and was premiered to rave reviews at the 2014 BAM Next Wave Festival. The New York Times called The Source “a 21st Century masterpiece,” and included it on its list of the best classical vocal performances of 2014 and best albums of 2015, noting that the work “offers a fresh model of how opera and musical theater can tackle contemporary issues: not with documentary realism, but with ambiguity, obliquity, and even sheer confusion.” During the 2016-17 season, the original production of The Source (directed by Daniel Fish) was presented by both the LA Opera and San Francisco Opera.

Hearne’s piece Katrina Ballads, another modern-day oratorio with a primary source libretto, was awarded the 2009 Gaudeamus Prize in composition and was named one of the best classical albums of 2010 by Time Out Chicago and The Washington Post. His ongoing collaboration with legendary musician Erykah Badu pairs newly composed music with arrangements of Badu’s work for orchestra, most recently presented with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, whom Hearne also conducted.

Law of Mosaics, Hearne’s 30-minute piece for string orchestra, has been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His album of the same name, with Andrew Norman and A Far Cry, was named one of The New Yorker’s notable albums of 2014 by Alex Ross. In 2022, it was also adapted into an acclaimed repertory piece at the New York City Ballet, which was designated a Critic’s Pick by The New York Times. 

Hearne has remained busy throughout 2024 and 2025. Hearne’s ongoing collaboration with radical choreographer Pam Tanowitz reached new heights with a 30-minute orchestral work, Or Forevermore, premiered at the Royal Ballet of London in Fall 2024. It was the subject of rave reviews from The Guardian, The Financial Times, and many more. Hearne also wrote the music for an operatic adaptation of Elektra, a new and acclaimed version of Sophocles‘ classic play from a translation by Anne Carson and directed by Daniel Fish. Starring Brie Larson and Stockard Channing, it premiered in January 2025 on London’s West End and was praised by The Guardian as “arresting…a radical rewiring.” Hearne’s over and over vorbei nicht vorbei, made in collaboration with director Daniel Fish, was premiered at Komsiche Oper Berlin in February 2024 and later at Nationaltheater Weimar in May 2025. The work incorporates text from toxic histories of violence in the U.S., Germany, and Israel.

Other Hearne projects include: Dorothea, a kaleidoscopic art pop collaboration embodying the tender, pathos-ridden, darkly funny words of poet Dorothea Lasky with synth beats, rhapsodic textures and the heavenly vocals of “Los Angeles-based polymath” Eliza Bagg. He has performed with Philip White as the vocal-electronics duo R WE WHO R WE, whose debut album (New Focus Recordings, 2013) was called “eminently, if weirdly, danceable and utterly gripping” (Time Out Chicago). Other albums include The Source and Outlanders (New Amsterdam Records) and The Crossing’s acclaimed recording of Sound From the Bench (Cantaloupe Music).

Ted Hearne was awarded the 2014 New Voices Residency from Boosey and Hawkes, and is a member of the composition faculty at the University of Southern California. Ted’s many collaborators include poets Dorothea Lasky and Jena Osman, visual artists Sanford Biggers and Rachel Perry, directors Daniel Fish and Patricia McGregor, and filmmakers Bill Morrison and A.M. Frison, and his works have been conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams and Gustavo Dudamel. Recent commissions include orchestral works for the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Ballet of London, New World Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and A Far Cry, chamber works for Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble dal Niente and Brooklyn Rider, vocal works for Conspirare, The Crossing and Roomful of Teeth, and large-scale collaborative works with performance artist Taylor Mac, interdisciplinary artist Damon Davis and hip-hop/soul icon Erykah Badu. A new operatic adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin‘s classic novel The Dispossessed, with Wild Up and director Kaneza Schaal, will premiere in 2026.