Recent winner of the 2023 American Prize for Shorter Choral Works Division, Jessica French is a Seattle-based composer specializing in choral music, both sacred and secular. Her works have been commissioned and performed by various ensembles including the BBC Singers, the St. Olaf Cantorei and Orchestra; the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys (NYC), the Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street (NYC), Seattle Pro Musica, Northwest Boychoir, Seattle Girls Choir, and Choral Arts Northwest. Most recently, she was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists to compose two separate works for their 2022 National Convention in Seattle. Her music has been performed in venues and churches across the U.S, including Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, St. John the Divine and Trinity Wall Street in NYC, the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, St. James Cathedral in Seattle, the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgetown University in Washington D.C., Harvard University in Cambridge, and at the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene. Internationally, her music has been performed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, and the U.K., and has been featured on various broadcasts, including the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, Pipedreams, and With Heart and Voice. Jessica has a rare ability called synesthesia, in which various senses are linked to one another, mainly in the form of colors associated with notes, timbres, and words.
