short bio

Caroline Jesalva (b. 2000) is a Chicago-based musician, improviser, multidisciplinary artist, and curator. She studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA where she developed a practice centered on contemporary, improvised and experimental music composition and performance. Her music continually concerns the experimentation and intermingling of violin and vox, finding an expressive home in many disciplines, including experimental theater, songwriting, puppetry, performance art, classical music, and free jazz. Her self-led projects include the experimental-art-rock quartet 20/20 Plastic, and two solo projects for violin and voice: ‘out of context’ and ‘rotations around the sun’. Caroline’s work has been championed, curated, and funded by the Ear Taxi Festival, Edgefest Music Festival, Elastic Arts Foundation, New England Conservatory of Music, International Museum of Surgical Science, and the 3Arts Foundation. A nomadic performer, Caroline can be seen improvising with music collective BananaAcid, exploring the performance of the body with Katinka Kleijn, violining in the pit for puppets with Manual Cinema, creating electric-acoustic improvisations with Sarah Clausen, singing and fiddling with Janelle Finton’s Joygarden, and more.

medium bio

Caroline Jesalva (Violin, Vocals) is a Chicago-based musician, improviser, multidisciplinary artist, and curator. She studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA where she developed a practice centered on contemporary, improvised and experimental music composition and performance. Her work intersects many disciplines including experimental theater, songwriting, performance art, classical music, and free jazz. On violin/vox, she has contributed to projects led by Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Laufey, Johan Lenox, Hannah Frances, among many other incredible artists. Caroline is a member of the improvising collective BananaAcid, and collaborates regularly with Chicago-based musicians, such as cellist Katinka Kleijn and saxophonist Sarah Clausen. She has performed as a soloist, in duos, and with ensembles such as Manual Cinema, A Far Cry, Bang on a Can, ECCE Ensemble, and Crossing Borders Music, appearing at venues across the U.S. including Jordan Hall, Logan Center for the Arts, MASS MoCA, Compound Yellow, Oracle Egg, Constellation, Elastic Arts Foundation, Moeser Auditorium, The Hideout, Hungry Brain, BOMBYX Center for Arts, Rosehill Cemetery, and the International Museum of Surgical Science. A dedicated curator and organizer, Caroline is the co-artistic director of Music in the Garden Festival hosted annually at Elastic Arts Foundation.

long bio

Caroline Jesalva is a Chicago-based violinist, improviser, and curator traversing the worlds of improvisation, performance art, and experimental music.

Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, Caroline began her musical journey when she was four years old through the Suzuki Music Program at Meredith College. She continued her violin studies with Eric Pritchard (Ciompi String Quartet) at Duke University, orchestral studies with the North Carolina Symphony, jazz voice studies with Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble (Essentially Ellington 2017, 2018), and chamber music through Mallarme Chamber Ensemble. She was the 2018 Prize Winner of the Chapel Hill Philharmonia Young Artist Concerto Competition, a two-time consecutive winner of the Philharmonic Association Concerto Competition, and a finalist in the Ronald Sachs International Music Competition. She has also held fellowships through YellowBarn Young Artists, Bang-on-A Can, Black House Collective, A Far Cry, and Quince Ensemble. In 2023, Caroline completed her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music with a B.M. in Violin Performance, under the tutelage of Nicholas Kitchen.

At NEC, she developed an original practice centered on contemporary, improvised and experimental music composition and performance. Her music continually concerns the experimentation and intermingling of violin and vox, currently finding an expressive home in many disciplines, including experimental theater, songwriting, puppetry, performance art, classical music, and free jazz.

Since moving to Chicago, Caroline has found undying love, creative inspiration, and exuberant community in the experimental, avant-garde, and new music scenes. A 3-Arts Make A Wave Awardee, she has enjoyed a wonderful and expanding career in performing, curating, and teaching. She has enjoyed performing with ensembles A Far Cry, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Callithumpian Consort, [nec] shivaree, Manual Cinema, ECCE Arts Ensemble, and currently, is the violinist of Crossing Borders Music Quartet. Since 2022, Caroline has been the co-artistic director of Music in the Garden, an independent concert series for improvisers, creatives, and experimental artists hosted at Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago. Additionally, throughout the year, she curates a series for experimental and improvised music at Stola Contemporary Art. When not performing or creating, Caroline teaches; and she has taught at The People’s Music School (Chicago, IL), Mallarme Chamber Youth Orchestra (Chapel Hill, NC), New England Conservatory Preparatory School (Boston, MA), as a 2020 CPP Teaching Fellow at Boston Conservatory Lab Charter School, and through Crossing Borders Music’s educational initiatives in Chicago Public Schools.