Christian Jessup

Christian Taylor Jessup (born 19 January 1996) is an American composer and musician. He has composed more than 200 pieces, including Star Wars: A New Score and Falling for Her. Jessup is a graduate of Crest High School and is completing his undergraduate degree in Music Composition and Film at Gardner-Webb University. Jessup has received many accolades for his music and music research, and spent summer of 2017 interning at film company, Remote Control Productions.
Star Wars: A New Score
In the summer of 2016, Jessup began research on a new project entitled Star Wars: A New Score in which he wrote an entirely new musical score to the 1977 film, Star Wars. The project involved writing a score that would improve upon certain areas of John Williams' original score, specifically in regards to character continuity and music placement. "My idea was to look at the film from the perspective of a series," Jessup explained. "I evaluated which characters were important enough that we need to start off with that theme." In August of 2016, Jessup finished writing the score, using the months leading up to the score's premiere for editing and music production.Although written for a symphonic orchestra, the score itself was entirely electronic instruments. Jessup played MIDI keyboards to perform the parts and used EastWest instrument samples to imitate an orchestral sound. The film itself premiered on December 8, 2016 at Gardner-Webb University and was met with positive reviews. Critics' Choice member Noel T. Manning II wrote, "Christian Jessup took on the monumental task of re-scoring a cinematic classic, and he did so with precision, passion, and attention to individual scenes, settings and characters. He captured the humor, the intensity, the fear and the hope of the Star Wars story."
Falling for Her
On April 23, 2015, Jessup premiered his piano duet Falling for Her at Gardner-Webb University, performed by himself and Dr. Bruce Moser, Assistant Professor of Music at the university. Jessup described the piece as "a contemporary musical interpretation of a classic romance the spark, growth, hardships, and ultimately, the triumph, of true love." Critic Frank Newton called the piece "a rapturously melodic piano duet which practically sang, propelled by a sixteenth-note ostinato. Building on the popularity of the piece, Jessup released an album in July of that year, entitled Falling for Her, featuring 45 minutes of music inspired by the piano duet.

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