Jessica Shand is a performer-composer and researcher whose background in mathematics informs her vision of music as a practice of radical imagination and multi-sensory exploration. Having fallen in love with the Western romantic and impressionist repertoires first as a young ballet dancer, she went from playing the flute in her school and local youth ensembles to winning major solo competitions and performing with orchestras worldwide. Now, her original work calls on an eclectic set of musical languages passed down to her by cherished mentors and influences, from classical and jazz idioms to electroacoustic music and creative improvisation.
In 2022, Jessica graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and music, earning the Wister Prize for the most outstanding record in either field. Simultaneously enrolled in the highly selective joint program with the New England Conservatory, she studied classical flute performance with the internationally renowned soloist Paula Robison and expanded her musical vocabulary under the mentorship of Claire Chase, Vijay Iyer, and Esperanza Spalding at Harvard and later Miguel Zenón and others at MIT and Berklee. At 20, she became one of the youngest individuals ever invited to speak at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory and American Musicological Society, where she presented original research on artificial creativity and improvising machines.
Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Jessica is currently based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she has been developing her creative practice and cultivating an interdisciplinary body of work as a graduate researcher at the MIT Media Lab. Most recently, she was named to the inaugural class of the Steve Jobs Archive Fellowship. She has been a Wm. S. Haynes Co. International Young Artist since 2016.
Website: www.jessicashand.com Instagram: @jessica.shand
InterSync is a Boston-based trio consisting of Dexter Callender III (saxophone), Rafael Moises Heredia Horimoto (drums, guitar), and Arman Wali (keyboard).
Instagram: @dexter.iii @horimotosa_n @armanwalii