Jessica Shand is a performer-composer and multimedia artist based out of Providence, RI. She merges contemporary experimental classical, jazz, and electronic performance practices with mathematics and computer science to explore worldbuilding and unworlding—the embrace of entropy, decay, and creative destruction to reimagine the world we inhabit.

An inaugural fellow with the Steve Jobs Archive (2023), Jessica’s output spans live performance, studio recording, sound design for film, gallery installations, academic publications, and community workshops. Her debut release, a solo album entitled Transmutations (2025), unravels vast perceptual landscapes out of flute sound to probe the boundaries of auditory perception. Most recently, she co-wrote How to Break (Almost) Anything (2026), an experimental narrative film for which she also composed the score, acted, danced, and produced alongside director J Wang. Her music has been commissioned and presented by the Harvard University New Music Ensemble, Berggruen Institute (LA), Non-Event (BOS), PVD Fringe Festival (PVD), New Ear :: SPATIAL (NYC), Oh My Ears (PHX), Composers Now, and others. 

As a flutist, Jessica has been a Wm. S. Haynes Co. International Young Artist since 2016 and has been recognized by organizations and ensembles worldwide, including first-prize awards in competitions hosted by the National Flute Association, NPR’s From the Top, National YoungArts Foundation, Music Teachers National Association, and performances with such ensembles as the American Modern Opera Company, American Repertory Theatre, International Contemporary Ensemble, and National Youth Orchestra of the USA, and at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals.

Passionate about 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 has also been invited to give research talks at the MIT Museum, Interlochen Center for the Arts, UMass Amherst, RIOT! RI, Colorado Flute Association, and more. 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 writing 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). 

Originally from 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. Other cherished mentors include Claire Chase, Vijay Iyer, Esperanza Spalding, Miguel Zenón, and Brook Ferguson. She is now further developing her work at Brown University, where she is a second-year PhD student in music and multimedia composition.

Contact
For inquiries, booking, or to get in touch, please contact jessica.shand@gmail.com.