Jens Ibsen, composer/tenor, is a multidisciplinary artist whose vocal talents have led him to performances from Dubai to Shanghai as a principal soloist and the first African-born member of the world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir. His music is equally globe-trotting, with performances from The Polish Hearth in London to the San Francisco Symphony. 

Ibsen’s music seeks to liberate the definition of metal music from the confines of the metal band. He natively composes music in this style for traditional classical ensembles while infusing the musical knowledge of his multicultural upbringing including Western classical and avant-garde music, Arab and Turkish music, and African diasporic music. Rooted in the ethos of “progressive” music such as prog metal, Ibsen endeavors to craft new sounds from the synthesis of tradition with the innovations of the youthful, ever-evolving metal scene. He seeks to interrogate the role of musical genre in the post-streaming era, where humanity’s collective musical history is available at the push of a button, and utilize polystylism as a language through which to pursue questions of queerness, ancestry, and structural power.

Ibsen was the 2022 winner of the San Francisco Conservatory's Emerging Black Composers Project, which culminated in the premiere of his piece Drowned in Light for the San Francisco Symphony in November 2023. A passionate composer of opera, Ibsen has collaborated with librettist Cecelia Raker on two pieces including Bubbie and the Demon for the Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, and Rumpelstiltskin and the Unlovable Children for the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. Ibsen was a finalist in Beth Morrison Projects’ Next Gen Competition, which seeks out emerging voices in the field of new opera.

Ibsen has been commissioned by numerous festivals including the Oregon Bach Festival Composer Symposium and the São Paolo Contemporary Composers Festival, as well as the Mary Pickford Foundation for a partial score for the film A Little Princess. Upcoming projects include Scene Symphony for the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the premiere of the half-hour Scene Variations for veteran new music pianist Kathleen Supové.

Ibsen completed his B.A in Music Composition at Pepperdine University under N. Lincoln Hanks while studying voice under Louise Lofquist. He received his M.M. in Music Composition at the Mannes School of Music under Missy Mazzoli while studying voice under Stephen Powell. Other composition teachers have included Randall Woolf, Matthew Brown, and Matthew Cmiel. His voice teachers have included Julia Nielsen, Eva Lindquist, and Sheri Greenawald.

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