About Me

Jason DeBord has been on faculty at the Department of Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance since September 2014. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020. He has extensive experience as a conductor, musician, music supervisor and arranger. He is also a brilliant and accomplished teacher, coach and accompanist. Dozens of his former U-M students are currently performing on Broadway, in film and television. He’s also held master classes and worked at summer programs for high school and college students across the country and overseas.

Jason DeBord was the resident music supervisor for both the Broadway and national tour productions of Once – The Musical and cast the production of the show in Seoul, South Korea. His Broadway credits also include Shrek, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Rock of Ages, Legally Blonde, All Shook Up, and Rent among others. Other New York credits include Bare – The Musical, Fat Camp, Bat Boy – The Musical, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, City Center Encores!, and countless developmental productions of new works.

DeBord played and conducted the national tours of A Chorus Line, Rent, and Urinetown – The Musical. His playing is featured prominently in the 2009 Sony Pictures Classics release Every Little Step, and he has played on multiple recordings for stage, film and television. Regionally, DeBord has worked on new musical theater productions at the Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, A.C.T., the Alliance Theater, and the 5th Avenue Theater.

In the summer of 2020, he served as segment producer for the St. Louis Muny’s Online Variety Hour. He also created new dance, vocal and song arrangements for the revised version of Lerner & Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon, which was produced at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, the Ordway Theatre in St Paul and the St. Louis Muny.

DeBord served as music director for Music Academy International’s summer musical theatre intensive in Mezzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy from 2016-2019. He has served as a coach and adjudicator for the MSVMA Musical Theatre Vocal Intensive since 2017. He has also taught at the McCarter Theatre, San Diego Junior Theater and the American Theater Wing’s Springboard program. He has served multiple guest artist residencies in the theatre department at the

University of Colorado – Boulder. From 1993-94, DeBord served as an accompanist in the Vocal Music Department at the University of San Diego. He has coached private vocal and piano students and provided audition training and master classes throughout his career.

Most recently, DeBord was music director for the production of Chess at the St. Louis MUNY. Currently on sabbatical, he is collaborating with artists Nick Spear and August Eriksmoen on an original cantata, Extraction to Extinction. He is also leading an initiative in Spring of 2024 to provide professional development and networking to music directors for musical theater in Mexico City, along with Six company member and U-M Musical Theatre alumna, Aline Mayagoytia.