NYMF Welcomes FUN HOME Composer Jeanine Tesori as 2015 Honorary Chair; Kicks Off Today

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) welcomes Tony Award-winner Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home) as the NYMF 2015 Honorary Chair. This year's event kicks off today, July 7.

This year's festival will also present Women of Note, a one-night only concert event to celebrate the women writers who are changing the landscape of musical theatre. Featuring the women who are making theatre sing, the concert will include songs by Tesori, Deborah Abramson, Lynn Ahrens, Barbara Anselmi, Carmel Dean, Zina Goldrich, Amanda Green, Marcy Heisler, Anna K. Jacobs, Kait Kerrigan, Zoe Sarnak, Georgia Stitt, Shaina Taub, and more. Women of Note will take place at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W. 42nd St.) on Monday, July 20 at 8:00 pm with performers to be announced. Tickets are available now by booking your NYMF pass at www.nymf.org/tickets.

"We are thrilled to name Jeanine Tesori as our 2015 Honorary Chair, as we celebrate her outstanding work, and the incredibly talented and diverse group of women expanding the definition of musical theatre," said The New York Musical Theatre Festival Executive Director & Producer Dan Markley. "We congratulate Jeanine and our many other NYMF alumni and advisors -- including Kelli O'Hara, Michael Cerveris, and Annaleigh Ashford-on their 2015 Tony Award wins."

Individual tickets for NYMF 2015 events are on sale now. Visit www.nymf.org/tickets for more information.

The lineup for NYMF 2015 includes over twenty new musicals: 210 Amlent Avenue, Acappella, Claudio Quest, Deep Love: A Ghostly Rock Opera, Foolerie, HeadVoice, Held Momentarily, Manuel versus The Statue of Liberty, Moses Man, Napoleon, Passing By, Pope! An Epic Musical, Real Men, a musical for guys and the women who put up with them; Single Wide, Songs for the Fallen, Spot on the Wall, Summer Valley Fair, The Calico Buffalo, The Cobalteans, Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera, Wearing Black, and What Do Critics Know? In addition, NYMF 2015 will feature staged readings and the debut of brand-new concerts from today, July 7, 2015, to July 27, 2015.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival nurtures the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theatre.

Now in its twelfth year, the Festival is the premier musical theatre event in the world. The preeminent site for launching new musicals and discovering new talent, the Festival provides an affordable platform for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theatre fans. More than 90 Festival shows have gone on to productions on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters in all 50 states, and in more than 20 countries worldwide. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition of its work "creating and nurturing new musical theatre, ensuring the future of this essential art form."

NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2015 is sponsored by Fuzzrocket, PRG, TheaterMania, Clear Channel Spectacolor, and The Village Voice, and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

The NYMF PASS is a great way to experience The New York Musical Theatre Festival. With a NYMF PASS, you can get into the theater before individual ticket holders. Passes also offer the exclusive ability to book tickets before they go on sale to the public. NYMF Passholder ticket booking begins June 1. Individual tickets go on sale June 15.

The 2015 New York Musical Theatre Festival will take place today, July 7, through July 27. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.

JEANINE TESORI composed the scores to the Broadway productions of Violet, Caroline, or Change (2004 Tony nomination for Best Original Score), Shrek the Musical (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for Music) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (2000). Her Off-Broadway musical Violet (Obie Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical) opened on Broadway last season starring Sutton Foster. Her most recent musical, Fun Home, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, played a sold-out run at the Public Theater last season, and opened on Broadway this April to rave reviews and 12 Tony Nominations. She has written music for several plays, including Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (Tony nomination for Best Score), John Guare's A Free Man of Color, and Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, which was part of the 2006 Shakespeare in the Park season and starred Meryl Streep. Her film scores include Nights in Rodanthe, Every Day, and You're Not You. Her opera, A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (libretto by Tony Kushner) premiered at Glimmerglass Festival in 2011 and her newest opera, The Lion, the Unicorn and Me (libretto by J. D. McClatchy), had its world premiere run at D.C.'s Washington National Opera in December 2013. She is the creative director and co-founder (with Idina Menzel) of A Broader Way Foundation, an immersive arts education program for girls from underserved communities of New York City. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center and is a lecturer in music at Yale University.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride