Jessica Pavone String Ensemble

Jessica Pavone formed the J. Pavone String Ensemble in 2017 as an expansion of her solo viola practice, which continues to inform her compositional language and approach to ensemble writing. The ensemble works with indeterminate structures that move between metered and time-based scores, as well as notation and improvisational instruction. A digital clock guides durations and transitions, allowing performances to unfold as real-time reconstructions shaped by collective listening and interaction. Each performance becomes a real-time reconstruction of the work. Pavone’s work focuses on sound, embodiment, and perception, emphasizing music as a shared, physical experience rather than a display of individual virtuosity.

The group has performed at Suoni Per Il Popolo (Montreal), Bang on a Can Long Play (NYC), the Logan Center for the Arts (Chicago), Dartmouth New Music Festival (Hannover), Bryant Park (NYC), Winter Jazzfest (NYC), Roulette (Brooklyn), ISSUE Project Room (Brooklyn), Firehouse 12 (New Haven), Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (Asheville), Garner Arts Center (Garnerville, NY), and The Rotunda (Philadelphia). They have released four studio albums to critical acclaim, with coverage from The Wire, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, JazzTimes, and San Francisco Classical Voice. Brad Cohen (JazzTimes) called Pavone “a free-thinker who can’t be pigeonholed,” while Peter Margasak (Chicago Reader) described the debut album Brick and Mortar as “the most assured, bracing work of Pavone’s career.” The 2020 release Lost and Found (Astral Spirits) was named one of Bandcamp Daily’s Best Contemporary Albums of the Year, and praised by outlets including NPR, The Wire, and Jazzwise. Chris Ingalls (PopMatters) wrote that the music is “too stunning to lump into genres.”

They have released four studio albums to critical acclaim, with coverage from The Wire, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, JazzTimes, and San Francisco Classical Voice. Brad Cohen (JazzTimes) called Pavone “a free-thinker who can’t be pigeonholed,” while Peter Margasak (Chicago Reader) described the debut album Brick and Mortar as “the most assured, bracing work of Pavone’s career.” The 2020 release Lost and Found (Astral Spirits) was named one of Bandcamp Daily’s Best Contemporary Albums of the Year, and praised by outlets including NPR, The Wire, and Jazzwise. Chris Ingalls (PopMatters) wrote that the music is “too stunning to lump into genres.”