Jesse Budel (b. 1991) is a composer-performer, sound artist, producer and arts entrepreneur based in South Australia. 

His works are for diverse media and spaces, ranging from concert works and installations to community and interdisciplinary collaborations.  His music has been performed the Australian String Quartet (AUS), Soundstream Ensemble (AUS), Zephyr Quartet (AUS), Elder Conservatorium Wind Orchestra (AUS) and Corvus Ensemble (Alaska, USA), and he has been an artist-in-residence at Adelaide City Library and Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre in Mount Gambier (SA, AUS), as well as at Arts Letters and Numbers (Upstate NY, USA).

Jesse’s PhD research at Elder Conservatorium of Music (supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship) focussed on adapting soundscape ecology to creative process, resulting in a body of works responding South Australian ecosystems and soundscapes, and receiving a Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence in 2019. Previously, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Composition) with First Class Honours in 2013, studying with Graeme Koehne, David Harris and Charles Bodman Rae, and receiving numerous Director’s Awards for ‘outstanding achievement as a composer and a high level of commitment in the promotion and performance of new music’.

As an emerging member of the Acoustic Ecology and Ecoacoustic communities, Jesse currently serves as the Secretary for both the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology and World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

In the wider community, he is an ongoing contributor to the arts culture, and youth sectors, being recognised for his efforts with a SA Regional Awards Murraylands-Riverlands Youth Award in 2013, and as a Finalist for the Frank Ford Memorial Young Achiever Award at Arts South Australia’s 2020 Ruby Awards. In recent years, he has developed a number variety of community arts installation sites, including the Murray Bridge Piano Sanctuary, Featherstone Sound Space and Strata.

Jesse also continues to have an active involvement in musical theatre. He has numerous musical director credits, including Strictly Ballroom (SA Premiere, 2019) with Matt Byrne Media, Beauty and the Beast (2019) with Whyalla Players, Nice Work If You Can Get It with the Met (2021), and RENT with 5 Quarter Designs (2022). Onstage credits with Murray Bridge Players and Singers include Horton in Seussical (2011), Zeke in High School Musical (2013), Tony in West Side Story, acting and directing in Harold Pinter’s Victoria Station (2014), and Rapunzel’s Prince in Into The Woods (2016), and Wolfgang in The Hipster (2020) with Soundbowl Productions.

Jesse’s CV can be viewed here.

Photo by Val Bubner