TED HEARNE is an active composer, conductor, and performer of new music in the New York and Chicago areas. He is Artistic Director of Yes is a World, a nonprofit organization working to promote peace and social change through musical diversity and the collaboration of young artists. Since their inception in January 2002, Yes is a World has produced six performances integrating music and text from different artistic traditions. These endeavors include a production of Tony Kushner’s newest one-act play, Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy, as well as Kiss the Speaker Wire, an exploration of protest music from America and South Africa. Most recently, Yes is a World performed A New Wake at New York's Riverside Church, a benefit project for the tsunami relief efforts of Faithful America. More information about Yes is a World can be found on the web at http://www.yesisaworld.org.

Ted was named composer-in-residence of the Chicago Children’s Choir in 2003. The choir has premiered several of his works, most recently Cantata: Songs of the Divided in June 2004. Performed with a select ensemble from the Chicago Youth Symphony, this twenty-minute commission weaves together texts and melodies from five embattled regions around the world - Chechnya, Rwanda, Ireland, Palestine and Korea  into a meditation on the struggle for home and identity. He also worked with Jai Uttal as co-composer and arranger for Sita Ram, a world music opera performed by the choir last spring at Ravinia Festival Park. His newest commission from the CCC, Fortress, will be heard in the near future.

Ted received his Bachelor’s Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied composition with Julia Wolfe and Nils Vigeland. Upon graduation he was a recipient of the Nicholas Flagello Award, given to one student annually for outstanding work in classical composition. He was a composition fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute 2004, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, and was the musical assistant for Bang on a Can's production of Lost Objects at the BAM New Wave Festival in December 2004. Ted now serves as adjunct faculty at Manhattan School of Music.