| Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg
is a sound artist, composer, and shape note singer whose work explores the intersections
of technology and tradition. His work delves into personal narrative and the rootedness
of history in geology and place. His output encompasses installation, music for
live performance, tunebooks, web design, audio tours, and transmission arts. His
current work investigates the history and practice of Sacred Harp singing and
the geological, social, technological, and religious history of upstate New York.
Jesse has an MFA in Integrated Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
in Troy, NY and a BA in Music and Philosophy from Wesleyan University in Middletown,
CT. Jesse's shape note music has been sung at singings throughout the Northeast,
and his experimental music has been performed by Pauline Oliveros, Anne Rhodes,
Micah Silver, Angela Opell, Caterina De Re, and Tim Eastman, among others. He
is the founder and director of the Sacred Harp singing quartet, the Finer Repiners.
He is a member of Tintinnabulate, an improvising ensemble founded by Pauline Oliveros,
whose members achieve harmony through intuition, play, and sympathetic resonance.
He is also a member of Festival Harmony, a chorus dedicated to the performance
of new and old music in the shape note tradition. Jesse recently completed
an AIRtime Residency at free103point9's Wave Farm in Acra, NY, exploring the link
between prophecy and radio transmission in the context of his Azariah project.
He has recently presented work at the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY, in
Peekskill Project at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill,
NY, the Conflux Festival in Brooklyn, NY, the Boston Cyberarts Festival, Eyebeam
in Chelsea, the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Jessica Murray Projects
in Chelsea, Gigantic ArtSpace in Downtown Manhattan, NY, Contemporary Artists
Center in North Adams, MA, The Old Songs Building in Voorheesville, NY, the Widow
Jane Mine in Rosendale, NY, Psy-Geo Provflux Festival in Providence, RI, Wesleyan
University in Middletown, CT, and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy,
NY. Jesse is the cofounder of the Society for a Subliminal State and editor-in-chief
of the Society's newsletter, Subliminal Statements. He has given lectures and
presented shape note singing workshops at Google Inc. and the Contemporary Artists
Center in North Adams, MA among other locations. With the Society for a Subliminal
State, Jesse is the co-recipient of a New York State Music Fund grant for a series
of shape note singing workshops in Upstate New York, and a New York State Council
on the Arts individual artist grant. Other grants include funding from the Joe
Beasley Memorial Foundation for the preservation and promotion of Sacred Harp
singing, a travel grant from the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention,
and the Gwen Livingston Pokora Prize for excellence in music composition. Jesse
was born in 1981 in Boston, MA. He lives and works in Troy, NY.
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