About

Jessica T. Carter (b. 1992) is a composer, violinist, mezzo-soprano, and educator from Indiana whose music has been described as “evocative” (Aspire Magazine) and “lyrical” (Apricity Magazine). Specializing in concert music, film scoring, and musical theatre, her work seeks to bridge vitriol and compassion through empathy — illuminating the experiences of marginalized children while deepening the universal understanding of marginalized adults.

Jessica is the two-time recipient of the Craig and Carol Kapson Bicentennial Scholarship in Music Composition (2018, 2019). She was the winner of the 2020 Indiana University South Bend Symphonic Composition Competition with her cello concerto Rancor and Triumph, a 2023 semi-finalist for the Ravinia Music Festival, a 2023 finalist Respighi Prize in Music Composition for the work Shadows, and a finalist for the 2024 American Prize in Music Composition for the work Forgotten Royalty. Her work has been commissioned by the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, MusicaNova Symphony Orchestra, Crossing Borders Music, Castle of Our Skins, and Ensemble CONCEPT/21, among others.

In 2022, Jessica studied at the Paris Conservatory and participated in IRCAM ManiFest in Paris, France. Since then, her music has been performed internationally, including most notably the 2023 international premiere of Rancor and Triumph at the Tonal Composers Festival in Brasilia, Brazil. She was later awarded a fellowship with the MusicaNova Symphony Orchestra (Phoenix, AZ) under Maestro Warren Cohen, and a residency at Lunenburg Academy for Music Performance (Nova Scotia, CAN) with Dr. Dinuk Wijeratne. In 2025, she was selected for the Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden) and the Fusion Film Score Festival (Greece).

Her creative and academic contributions include her published groundbreaking research, Concert Music of the Civil Rights Movement: Uncovering the Erasure of Black American Composers in the United States (2020), her debut EP Memories (2020), and most recently, the publication of her piece STORM by Rising Tide Press (2025).

 She has worked with composers Marilyn Shrude, David Ludwig, Clara Iannotta, Augusta Read Thomas, and Billy Childs. Carter holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Bethel College and a Master of Music in Music Composition from Indiana University South Bend, under the tutelage of Dr. Jorge Muñiz. She maintains an active composition, education, and performance career while managing a private music studio in South Bend.