JACOB YANDURA is a New York City-based composer. Most recently, Jacob is best known for his musical How to Dance in Ohio, a musical adaptation of the 2015 Peabody Award-winning documentary (directed by Sammi Cannold; supported by the Prince Fellowship and the Shubert Organization’s Artistic Circle), which first premiered at Syracuse Stage in Fall 2022 and opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in Fall 2023. He is the recipient of the 2024 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award and was nominated for a 2024 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Broadway Production. His other projects with lyricist-collaborator, Rebekah Greer Melocik, include The Last Queen of Canaan (book by Harrison David Rivers), The Coup, and Wringer, a commission by New York City Children's Theater, based on the novel by Jerry Spinelli (Off-Broadway; New York City Center Stage II; directed by Stephen Brackett). Recognitions: 2016 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, the 2015 NAMT Festival of New Musicals (The Last Queen of Canaan), Ars Nova’s two-year UNCHARTED residency (The Coup), the 2014 Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, The York Theatre's NEO 2014 residency, the 2013 Yale Institute for Music Theatre (The Last Queen of Canaan), the 2012-2013 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, the 2012 Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Cap21’s Writers Residency and Ars Nova’s ANT Fest 2013 (The Fearful Earful). Jacob holds a B.A. in Music Composition from Kenyon College and an M.F.A from New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.