J&J MUSIC PREPARATION is a New York- and London-based music copy house founded by Josephine Bearden and Jacob Fjeldheim. J&J works with a roster of Tony, Olivier, and Grammy Award-winning artists across the touring and concert world, including Jeff Goldblum, Marc Shaiman, Audra McDonald, and Samara Joy. Recent Broadway and West End credits include The Lost Boys, Just in Time, Smash, Death Becomes Her, Gypsy, The Great Gatsby, Shucked, and Back to the Future. While centered in theatre, J&J was built on the distinct backgrounds of its founders: Josephine (Boston College, University of Oxford) brings experience across global television sales, content acquisitions, and capital raising, while Jacob (University of Florida, NYU) draws on a background in mathematics and physics alongside his creative work as a music director, arranger, and songwriter.
Before J&J Music, Josie Bearden spent three years on the TV sales & acquisitions team at FIFTH SEASON (Severance). In this role, Josie worked across content deals between the studio and major streamers like Netflix, Apple, and Hulu throughout the review, acquisition, and sale of scripted and non-scripted television series across the Americas. On the producing side, Josie has a proven history of raising private capital as a co-producer (Here We Are) and as an Investor Relations consultant for EST Capital Partners, an entertainment and media investment fund specializing in Broadway productions, tours, and licensing. As a copyist, Josie was one of the first hires in JoAnn Kane Music’s New York office when it opened in 2016. While at JKMS, Josie led the music copying team from London for the premieres of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical and Back to the Future. She also spent a year as the on-set copyist for Spielberg’s West Side Story. Josie got her start in the industry at age 21 as a music assistant to Alex Lacamoire on Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton. Josie is a proud graduate of Boston College and The University of Oxford. She lives in New York City, still does not have a driver’s license, and spends her free time playing violin in the Greenwich Village Orchestra and running marathons she should’ve trained harder for.
Hailing from Florida’s Space Coast, Jacob Fjeldheim studied Math and Physics at the University of Florida before moving to New York to earn his MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU. After graduating in 2016, he was commissioned to write songs for Ultimate Storytime, a musical comedy starring internet personality Thomas Sanders. Jacob began his career in music preparation in 2017 when he was asked to transcribe the orchestrations for Anthem: Homunculus, John Cameron Mitchell’s musical podcast starring Cynthia Erivo, Glenn Close, Nakhane, and Patti LuPone. Subsequently he assisted Broadway music supervisor Greg Anthony Rassen, through whom he was introduced to Russ Bartmus and the team at JoAnn Kane Music Service. Jacob joined the JKMS New York office as a full-time staff member in the fall of 2021. In addition to his work as a copyist, Jacob performs as a pianist, cellist, and songwriter in supper clubs and stages around the city. He often collaborates with Broadway’s Keri René Fuller (Wicked, Six) and her husband Matthew James Thomas (Harry Potter, Pippin), including as an orchestrator and arranger for Stephen Schwartz’s Defying Gravity—Live in Concert in Valletta, Malta. He likes reading nonfiction and considers himself a very good driver.