Biography

Please feel free to contact Jesse via e-mail.

Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg is a scholar, sound artist, composer, and Sacred Harp 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 papers and presentations, singing schools, 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 is a Woodruff Fellow in the PhD program at the Institute for Liberal Arts at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. He holds 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 United States, and his experimental music has been performed by Pauline Oliveros, Anne Rhodes, Micah Silver, Angela Opell, Caterina De Re, and Tim Eastman, among others. Jesse serves as the Vice President of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, the organization that publishes the Sacred Harp songbook. He served as President of the Board of the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Community, an organization dedicated to the promotion of Sacred Harp singing in Western Massachusetts, from 2007-2010. Jesse is the past Chairman of the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Singing Convention, the New York State Sacred Harp Singing Convention, and the Albany-area All Day Sacred Harp Singing. He is the founder and director of the Sacred Harp singing quartet, the Finer Repiners, and a founding member of the Sacred Harp singing octet, the Interstate Sacred Harp Singers.

In 2008, Jesse 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 performed twice at the Newport Folk Festival, and 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 Art Center of the Capital Region, 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, 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 co-director 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 SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, Wesleyan University, Bennington College, the Jaroslaw Early Music Festival in Poland, Google Inc., Upgrade! New York and Boston, and the Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, MA among other locations around the United States and the United Kingdom. With Carrie Dashow and 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 a New York State Council on the Arts grant supporting Sacred Harp singing workshops in New York City, 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 Atlanta, GA.