Composers

Jens Ibsen

1995 -

About

Jens Ibsen (b. 1995), composer/vocalist, is a tenor and trained opera singer whose vocal talents have led him to performances from Dubai to Shanghai, with stops along the way on German television and at Carnegie Hall and the UN. Jens was the principal soloist and first African-born member of the world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir. He completed his M.M. in Music Composition under Missy Mazzoli, and completed his B.A in Music Composition under Dr. Lincoln Hanks while studying voice under Dr. Louise Lofquist. At Pepperdine, Jens was one of the three Pickford Composers chosen to write music for silent film for the Up Against the Screen project through the Mary Pickford Foundation. This entailed writing over 20 minutes of music for chamber ensemble at a live screening of the film A Little Princess. He is also a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.Born in Accra, Ghana to a Ghanaian mother and an American father (of Danish descent), Jens' works are influenced by his early exposure to world music such as Ghanaian drumming and classical Arab and Indian music, as well as later influences including progressive metal and other distortion-heavy genres. His repertoire spans vocal and choral music, chamber music, electroacoustic music, and orchestral works.

Related Information

https://www.jensibsen.com

Works by Jens Ibsen

Title Collection Voice Type Range Poet
1. Tuways Mukhannath Songs Countertenor A2 - B5 Majnun Layla (trans. Geert Jan van Gelder)
2. al-Daläl Mukhannath Songs Voice F3 - A5 al-Khuzba'aruzzi (trans. Everett Rowson)
3. Ersoy Mukhannath Songs Countertenor D3 - C6 traditional text; melody Ismail Dede Efendi (1778-1846)
Elegy Jericho-Jim Crow Tenor A2 - Eb4 Jens Ibsen
Movement I Mukhannath Songs Tenor F3 - Bb4 Frangieh, Bassam, and Clementina Brown, trans. Nizar Qabbani: Arabian Love Poems. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993
Movement II Tenor C4 - C5 Frangieh, Bassam, and Clementina Brown, trans. Nizar Qabbani: Arabian Love Poems. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994
Movement III Tenor E3-E4 Frangieh, Bassam, and Clementina Brown, trans. Nizar Qabbani: Arabian Love Poems. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995