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.

Ibsen has been commissioned by numerous festivals including the Oregon Bach Festival Composer Symposium and the Impulse New Music Festival, as well as the Mary Pickford Foundation for a partial film score for the film A Little Princess. Ibsen was a finalist in Beth Morrison Projects’ Next Gen Competition, which seeks out emerging voices in the field of new opera.

A passionate composer of opera, recent works include the 20-minute opera, Bubbie and the Demon, written with librettist Cecelia Raker for the Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative. Ibsen’s next project with Raker is the hour-long children’s opera, Rumpelstiltskin and the Unlovable Children for the Glimmerglass Opera Festival, premiering August 2024. Ibsen was the 2022 winner of the San Francisco Conservatory's Emerging Black Composers Project, which culminated in the premiere of Ibsen’s piece Drowned in Light for the San Francisco Symphony in November 2023.

Ibsen is active as a performer in New York and San Francisco as a freelance vocalist, singing everything from early music to world premieres with ensembles such as The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and OS Ensemble. In 2018, he sang the role of Triquet in Mannes Opera’s production of Eugene Onegin conducted by Julian Wachner. He is also a passionate recitalist, often collaborating with pianist-composer Preben Antonsen.

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.