Composers & Arrangers - Christine Jensen

Montreal-based Christine Jensen is regarded as one of Canada’s most compelling composers. A native of British Columbia, Jensen is an original voice on the international jazz scene, currently leading her own jazz orchestra in addition to several other diverse ensemble projects.

A prolific composer and busy performer, she has released three small group recordings as a leader, Collage (2000), A Shorter Distance (2002), and Look Left (2006), two more with Nordic Connect (a project that she co-leads with her sister Ingrid), Flurry (2007), and Spirals (2011), two Juno Award-winning large ensemble recordings, Treelines - The Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra (2011), and Habitat (2014), and most recently, a new album of works for quintet entitled Infinitude (2017), featuring Ingrid and Ben Monder.

Jensen’s music has taken her all over the world, both through her work as a touring performer and a clinician, and in the form of numerous commissions and guest conducting opportunites with jazz orchestras in North America and Europe. In Canada, in addition to teaching saxophone and composition she divides her conducting time between The Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra, l'Orchestre National de Jazz de Montréal and McGill University's Jazz Orchestra 1.