JL “Jess” Marlor (she/they) is a composer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. JL is currently a fellow with American Opera Projects’ Composers and the Voice program, and won the Martinu prize for her womens-voice centered orchestral piece, Saltwater Lung, dealing with restorative justice, radical femininity, and its intersections with the climate crisis. In 2021, JL was named a Toulmin Creator in collaboration with National Sawdust for her work with young women at  El Puente – a grassroots youth-led community committed to justice and activism – to  songs and lyrics for the first time as a pathway to women's empowerment and activism. She is a frequent performer in her own works, as an electric guitarist and an indie rock vocalist. Beyond her work as a composer, JL fronts her indie rock band Tenderheart Bitches, which was hailed as “arriving on the indie rock scene with something serious to say” by The Wild Honeypie and was listed in Them’s 2021 list of best new songs written by queer artists. JL is a passionate educator teaching composition with the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program and has been a teaching artist with ACO’s Sonic Spark Lab for 5 years.