About
Jessica Shand is a performer-composer, sound artist, and scholar driven by the belief that music can create openings into more humane ways of moving through the world. While her early love for dance eventually led her to pick up her primary instrument, the flute, her solo and ensemble music, intermedia installations, and original scores for video game and film now call on an eclectic set of influences—from classical and jazz to electronic music and creative improvisation, to constellations of mathematics, technology, and philosophy—to mobilize curiosity and collaboration beyond disciplinary boundaries.
An inaugural fellow with the Steve Jobs Archive (2023-24), Jessica has presented and performed in partnership with such institutions as Carnegie Hall, the American Repertory Theatre, and the MIT Museum, and with ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Aspen Music Festival and School, and National Youth Orchestra of the USA. Her work has been commissioned by the Berggruen Institute, Harvard University, and others. At 20, she became one of the youngest-ever invited speakers at the annual joint meeting of the American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory (AMS-SMT), where she presented her early work on artificial creativity and improvising machines. She has since co-authored publications for the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) as well as the inaugural creative AI track at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).
Passionate about advocacy, equity, and sustainability across local and global arts ecosystems, Jessica has held positions with the Artistic Freedom Initiative, Advisory Board for the Arts, and Density Arts. She greatly enjoys teaching and learning alongside students, and has been invited to give talks, workshops, and classes by organizations ranging from the Interlochen Center for the Arts and Colorado Flute Association to Global Math Circle and MIT Abstracts.
Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Jessica holds an M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2024) and a B.A. in Mathematics and Music from Harvard University (2022). While at Harvard, she studied flute performance with Paula Robison as part of the highly selective joint program with the New England Conservatory. Her other mentors and influences include Claire Chase, Vijay Iyer, Esperanza Spalding, Miguel Zenón, Anthony Cheung, and Brook Ferguson.
She has been a Wm. S. Haynes Co. International Young Artist since 2016.
Photo: James Day (June 2023).
Contact
jessica.shand@gmail.com
Education
Brown University
PhD Candidate, Music and Multimedia Composition
Providence, RI
2024-Present
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SM, Media Arts and Sciences
Research Assistant (MIT Media Lab)
Cambridge, MA
2022-2024
Harvard University
AB, Mathematics and Music (Highest Honors)
NEC Dual Degree Program
Secondary Field in Computer Science
Cambridge, MA
2017-2022
Teaching & Advocacy
Colorado Flute Fair
Interactive Workshop on Loopers & AI (2024)
Artistic Freedom Initiative
Human Rights Research Fellow (2021)
Harvard University Gender Inclusivity in Math
Co-President (2021-22)
Global Math Circle
Instructor (2020-21)
Colorado Springs Teen Court Association
Student Defense Attorney (2013-17)
Selected Arts Leadership & Ensembles
MIT Emerson-Harris Fellows AMP Jazz Ensemble
Performer-Composer (2022-24)
Density 2036
Curatorial Assistant (2022-23)
Songwrights Apothecary Lab
Performer-Composer & Researcher (2022)
Harvard College Opera
President (2020-21)
VP of Management (2019-20)
Advisory Board for the Arts
Research Analyst (2020-21)
National Youth Orchestra of the USA
Alumni Mentor (2020 & 21)
Flutist (2016 & 17) [Performance Video]
Other: American Repertory Theatre, Performer (’23); MIT CMS Jazz Combos (’22 & ’23); Interlochen Center for the Arts, Guest Artist (‘22); Lowell House Opera (‘22); Harvard New Music Ensemble (‘21-22); Harvard Arts FIRST Festival, Student Producer (‘19-22); Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Director of Community Engagement (‘20); Brattle Street Chamber Players, Concerto Soloist (‘19); International Contemporary Ensemble (‘19); New Amsterdam Records, Financial Assistant (‘19); Aspen Music Festival & School (‘18); Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (‘17-18); New England Conservatory Woodwind Quintet (‘17-18); Colorado Young Musicians Foundation, Soloist (‘13-17); Denver Young Artists Orchestra (‘15-17); Pikes Peak Philharmonic, Concerto Soloist (‘16); Honor Orchestra of America, Principal (‘16); Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association (‘12-15)
Selected Awards & Fellowships
Density 2036 Fellowship
Density 2036 (2023-25)
Steve Jobs Archive Fellowship
Steve Jobs Archive (2023-24)
Genre-Fluid Composers Lab
New Amsterdam Records (2024)
MIT Presidential Scholarship
MIT Media Lab (2022-23)
Wister Prize in Mathematics/Music
Harvard University Faculty of Arts & Sciences (2022)
Green Prize in Composition
Harvard University Department of Music (2022)
Public Service Fellowship
Artistic Freedom Initiative
Harvard University Institute of Politics (2021)
Dean’s Scholarship
New England Conservatory (2017-22)
Other: MIT Music and Theater Arts, Ragnar and Margaret Naess Award (‘24); Emerson-Harris Fellowship in Jazz at MIT (‘22-24); Council for the Arts at MIT, Arts Project Grant (‘23); Harvard Department of Music, Davison Fellowship (‘22 & ‘19); U.S. Rhodes Scholarship, Finalist (‘21); Jefferson Symphony International Concerto Competition, Second Prize (‘20); Hugh F. MacColl Prize in Composition (‘20); Harvard Office for the Arts, Artist Development Fellowship (‘20); NPR’s From the Top, Soloist (‘19 & ‘16); National YoungArts Foundation, Finalist (‘17); National Flute Association High School Soloist Competition, Winner (‘17); The Colorado Springs Gazette, Best and Brightest Class of 2017 (‘17); Academy School District 20 Education Foundation Scholarship (‘17); Music Teachers National Association Senior Woodwinds Competition, Winner (‘16)
Conferences & Publications
Timbral Transformations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Media Arts and Sciences
Master’s Thesis | September 2024
Speculating Futures of Scientific Discovery through a Biotic Game
W. Yan*, J. Shand*, D. Zhu*, & W. Freudenheim*
Octobre Numérique-Faire Monde | October 2024
Unfiguring: Experiments in the practice of science and art | March 2024
Creative Text-to-Audio Generation via Synthesizer Programming
M. Cherep*, N. Singh*, & J. Shand
41st International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) [Paper] | July 2024
37th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
Machine Learning for Audio Workshop [Website] [Poster] | December 2023
Collaborative Synthscapes from Words
N. Singh*, M. Cherep*, & J. Shand*
37th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
Creative AI Track [Video] | December 2023
MOTHERBIRD for flute, live electronics, and artificial life simulation
J. Shand, M. Cherep, & J. Armitage
8th International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation (TENOR) [Performance Video] | May 2023
Patterns, Play, and Processes: Sounding Topological Graph Theory
Harvard University Departments of Mathematics & Music
Undergraduate Thesis | March 2022 [Text]
Artificial Creativity: Improvising Computers and the Listening Subject
43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory & American Musicological Society | November 2020 [Text]
*denotes equal contribution