about

Jessica Shand (she/her) is a Wm. S. Haynes Co. International Young Artist and performer-composer studying Mathematics, Music and Computer Science at Harvard (A.B. ‘22) and Flute Performance at the New England Conservatory (M.M. ‘23).

Shand’s work lies at the intersection of art and science, combining organic sound with electronics to subvert socially constructed binaries: subject and object, mind and body, human and machine. In 2020, she was one of the youngest individuals ever invited to speak at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory and American Musicological Society, where she presented original research on artificial creativity and improvising machines as part of a panel co-hosted by the Committee on the Status of Women and Queer Resources Group. She is currently writing and recording an original album inspired by themes of bending and deformation in algebraic topology.

During COVID-19, Shand has served as a human rights fellow with the Artistic Freedom Initiative, investigating the censorship of performers, directors, writers, curators, and other artists under authoritarian regimes and offering pro bono legal assistance to at-risk cultural workers escaping persecution. She has also worked with the Advisory Board for the Arts as a Research Analyst, conducting extensive research on pandemic strategy and digital transformation with and for executives at Carnegie Hall, American Ballet Theatre, English National Opera, National Theatre, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, Second Stage, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, and others.

At Harvard, Shand is the 2021-22 Co-President of Gender Inclusivity in Mathematics (GIIM), a grassroots organization that seeks to address gender inequities in pure mathematics by envisioning and enacting institutional and structural change. She served as President of Harvard College Opera, one of only a handful of undergraduate-led opera companies in the world, during its all-virtual season in 2020-21.

As a flutist and composer, Shand won Harvard’s Hugh F. MacColl Prize in Composition (2020), has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, was a featured soloist on NPR’s From the Top and with the Brattle Street Chamber Players, Pikes Peak Philharmonic, and Denver Young Artists Orchestra, was a National YoungArts Foundation finalist (2017), received the Artist Development Fellowship and Solomon Grant of Harvard’s Office for the Arts, won various solo competitions including those of the National Flute Association and Music Teachers National Association, curated an interdisciplinary performance series entitled Nineteen Hertz, and served as principal flutist with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA), Honor Orchestra of America, and Aspen Music Festival and School ensembles. She has championed and premiered upwards of forty brand-new musical works over the course of the last four years, not including her own songs and compositions.

Shand grew up along Colorado’s Front Range. Her influences include Paula Robison, Claire Chase, Vijay Iyer, and Brook Ferguson.

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