Bio
Jason DeBord is a music educator, supervisor and arranger. He is an Associate Professor of Music in the Department of Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where he teaches in the BFA Musical Theatre program and co-designed the school’s minor in Musical Theatre Composition. Jason also writes the arrangements and music directs the annual Senior showcase in New York City. He also served as music director for the musical theatre studio at the Trentino Music Festival in Italy for four years.
Jason was Resident Music Supervisor for the Broadway company and World Tour of ONCE; in 2025, he returned to Seoul, Republic of Korea to music supervise a new production of the show. He is currently music supervising the second national tour of SHUCKED. Other Broadway credits as conductor and keyboardist include SHREK, PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT, ROCK OF AGES, LEGALLY BLONDE, LESTAT, ALL SHOOK UP, and RENT among many others.
He is the originator and arranger of EXTRACTION TO EXTINCTION, a seven-movement dramatic cantata currently in development with music and lyrics by Nick Spear, a libretto co-written with Spear, and orchestrations by Olivier Award winner August Eriksmoen. Created with support from a University of Michigan RCI grant, the piece traces the country’s relationship with resource extraction from the 1917 Granite Mountain–Speculator mine fire in Butte, Montana to the copper, cobalt and lithium undergirding our digital present. Scored for six actor-vocalists and a modern concerto grosso; an electric band set in front of a full orchestra. Jason also created new dance, vocal and song arrangements for the revised version of Lerner & Loewe’s PAINT YOUR WAGON, produced at the 5th Avenue Theatre, the Ordway and the St. Louis MUNY.
Off-Broadway and other New York credits: BARE, FAT CAMP, BAT BOY, Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, City Center’s Encores! and developmental workshops of new works. National Tours: A CHORUS LINE, RENT, and URINETOWN. Regional: Alliance Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and A.C.T. Academic: residencies at the University of Colorado Department of Theatre and the Yale Institute for Music Theatre. His playing is featured prominently in the 2009 Sony Pictures Classics release, EVERY LITTLE STEP.
