JL Marlor
composer | songwriter | performer
Music
Music
Hi, I'm JL, but you can call me Jess
JL Marlor (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist, composer, and educator known for her unique, narrative-driven chamber music, opera, and vocal music that explores the intersections between the collective and the individual as it relates to community building and social consciousness. With a style that draws heavily from Slavic women's vocal music, riot grrrl punk, plainchant, and American protest music, JL's work has been performed by ensembles like Jack Quartet, Wet Ink Ensemble, and LoftOpera, and commissioned by ensembles like SparkDuo, Chromic Duo, the DaCamera Singers, and numerous individual performers.
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JL was recently awarded a Toulmin Fellowship in collaboration with National Sawdust for her work with young women to develop creative agency which culminated create large-scale student lead compositions by young women who have never written music before and had no prior musical training. Last summer, JL's third opera "The Final Veil" - a collaboration between JL and the acclaimed burlesque performer and modern dancer Cassandra Rosebeetle - was performed for a completely sold-out month at Nancy Manocherian's the cell theater in Chelsea.
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Beyond her work as a composer, JL fronts the indie rock band Tenderheart Bitches which was included in Them's list of "up and coming queer performers to watch out for", and their debut EP High Kicks was hailed by The Wild Honeypie "coming flaming out of the gate...arriving on the indie rock scene with something serious to say". Additionally, JL was one of the songwriters and arrangers for Seonjae Kim's riot grrrl punk adaptation of Antigone, "Riot Antigone," which premiered at La MaMa and received its off-Broadway premiere at ArsNova and released their cast recording in April of 2022.
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JL is also an enthusiastic educator who is passionate about teaching composition and musicianship to young people. She is a lead teaching artist with the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program, The Symphony of Westchester's Songcatchers program, and is a founding member of American Composer's Orchestra's genre-defying educational initiative Sonic Spark Lab - which has led her to work with young musicians at LaGuardia High School, Harlem School of the Arts, Talent Unlimited, and schools throughout the five boroughs.
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