Playwright, Composer and Lyricist
Recipient of the American Playwriting Foundation's 2025 Relentless Award
Pianist
Performed the complete solo piano works of Maurice Ravel
Organist
Concertizing and leading services at churches, cathedrals and temples in Manhattan
Lover of Nature
Botanist, scuba diver, wildlife photographer
The Story So Far
Jack D. Coen is a New York–based playwright, composer, and lyricist whose work bridges the worlds of music, theatre, and nature.
His original musical Jo Jenkins Before the Galactic High Court of Consciousness—a comedic and existential allegory for the climate crisis—received the 2025 Relentless Award, the largest annual prize for a new play in the United States. The show also earned him recognition as a finalist for the 2024 Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre Writing and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference. Stephen Sondheim once described his work as “remarkably craftsmanlike […] skillful and graceful.” He is currently collaborating with playwright Mona Pirnot on a new choral work, I Became We. He and Pirnot were Artists in Residence at Adelphi University, with the New York Theatre Workshop, in 2025.
He is an avid performer as a pianist and organist. A graduate of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, he has served as Director of Music at the Church of the Epiphany in Gramercy since 2018. As an organist, he has concertized in many of Manhattan’s leading sacred spaces, and has played the complete solo piano works of Maurice Ravel. Since 2020 he has been an adjunct Lecturer in Music Theory at CUNY Baruch College.
His artistry is deeply shaped by his love of the natural world. A trained botanist and avid scuba diver, he draws inspiration from biodiversity and has worked on conservation projects from Fire Island Pines to the Hudson Valley. Whether through music or landscape, his work seeks to connect people to the beauty of our living planet and the urgency of its stewardship.
