Jesse Hopkins began his musical studies in 1992, largely under self tutelage and benefiting from the many available orchestration, notation and harmony texts. In 1993 he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and was schooled in electronic music by Neil Leonard and Michael Bierillo. His studies in Film, Video and painting at the same institution would further round out his overall understanding of the requirements of music composition for visual media. Hopkins composed music for expressive dancer, John Hebert in 1994. In 1995 he attended Film Scoring, Harmony and Arranging classes at Berklee School of Music in Boston MA. At that time he met director, Robert Todd and producer Richard Broadman who commissioned him to compose the modern chamber music score for their short film version of The Tell-Tale Heart. Hopkins conducted and recorded the score with members of the Boston University Symphony Orchestra in April of 1995. From that time and through to the present day, Hopkins composed many concert works including Symphony no. 1, a tone poem entitled Colloseum, a large wind ensemble piece entitled Heroic Overture as well as many sketches for other orchestral works.

Hopkins returned to film scoring again in 1996 when he composed the electronic score for director Jonas Goldstein's adaptation of the Kafka short story "The Hunger Artist" entitled Tranquility Base. For two more years Hopkins attended Tufts University where he received his BFA, studying music history while refining his technique in composition and orchestration. During this period he composed String Quartet no. 1: Botanical (1997) which was performed by the Arden String Quartet alongside works by Frank Ingolia and Chris Avery under their composing group, The Helios New Music Ensemble. In 1999 Hopkins composed another film score for director Ben Spiegelman's From the Files of Dr. H: The Case of the Counting Horse. Scored for winds, harp, viola and percussion, the score reflected the interior world of the psychiatric ward portrayed in the film.

Current works include ongoing commissions from Kaiju Big Battel, another String Quartet, the score suite for Legend of Afterlore: Runes of Alliance and a symphonic piece for the Moravian Philharmonic's recording festival.