Caroline Jesalva is a Chicago-based improviser, curator, and violinist-vocalist traversing the worlds of performance art and experimental improvised music. Her sound world explores Dada, experimental theater, songwriting, glossolalia, and free improvisation. Caroline actively collaborates as one-fifth of the improvising collective Banana Acid. She also regularly performs in duos with cellist Katinka Kleijn and saxophonist Aaron Kaufman-Levine. In addition to her ensemble work, Caroline pursues a diverse range of solo projects and is currently preparing for the release of an upcoming solo album.

Caroline Jesalva is a violinist and curator. She is the co-founder of Subject to Change, a national commissioning project to perform, record, and publish new works for two violins by women and gender diverse composers. The inaugural concert was held in February 2024 at San Francisco Conservatory’s Barboro Osher Recital Hall.

Caroline has held fellowships with YellowBarn Young Artists, Bang-on-A Can, Black House Collective, A Far Cry, and Quince Ensemble; and is a recent graduate of New England Conservatory of Music where she studied violin under the tutelage of Nicholas Kitchen (Borromeo String Quartet).

Caroline is currently violinist of the Crossing Borders String Quartet based in Chicago, IL.

Caroline Jesalva is a performer, composer, curator, and violinist-vocalist traversing the worlds of improvisation, performance art, and experimental music. Her sound world explores Dada, experimental theater, songwriting, glossolalia, and free improvisation.

Caroline is the co-artistic director of Music in the Garden, an independent concert series for improvisers, creatives, and experimental artists in Chicago, IL. She is the co-founder and leader of Subject to Change, a national commissioning project to perform, record, and publish new works for two violins by women and gender diverse composers. The inaugural concert was held in February 2024 at San Francisco Conservatory’s Barboro Osher Recital Hall.

Caroline has held fellowships with YellowBarn Young Artists, Bang-on-A Can, Black House Collective, A Far Cry, and Quince Ensemble; and is a recent graduate of New England Conservatory of Music where she studied violin under the tutelage of Nicholas Kitchen (Borromeo String Quartet). She is the bandleader of Blind Glass (named the 2023 NEC Wildcard Honors Ensemble) which was created with the intention to build a collaborative space for musicians of all shapes and kinds.

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, Caroline began her musical journey in classical performance when she was four years old through the Suzuki Music Program at Meredith College. She continued her violin studies with Eric Pritchard (Ciompi String Quartet) at Duke University, and is an alumni of the Philharmonic Association, Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble (Essentially Ellington 2017, 2018), North Carolina Chamber Music Institute, and Mallarme Youth Chamber Orchestra, where she spent many happy days falling in love with chamber music. In the summers, she attended Brevard Music Festival and Meadowmount School of Music.  Caroline was the 2018 Rising Young Artist and performed with the Chapel Hill Philharmonia, a two-time winner of the Philharmonic Association Concerto Competition, and a finalist in the Ronald Sachs International Music Competition. As a soloist, she has performed in Jordan Hall (MA), Moeser Auditorium (NC), Purin Hall (WA), and Meymandi Hall (NC).

As an improviser, Caroline can be seen performing with Banana Acid (Chicago), Joygarden (Chicago), and Blind Glass (Boston/Chicago). An Eastman Performing Artist, Caroline performs on a five string Rudoulf Doetsch Series +. As a classical violinist, Caroline has performed with A Far Cry, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Callithumpian Consort, [nec] shivaree, and ECCE Arts Ensemble. In 2023, she joined Crossing Borders String Quartet in Chicago, and the Magari Ensemble. A passionate teacher, Caroline has taught at The People’s Music School (Chicago, IL), Mallarme Chamber Youth Orchestra (Chapel Hill, NC), New England Conservatory Preparatory School (Boston, MA), and was a 2020 CPP Teaching Fellow at Boston Conservatory Lab Charter School. Caroline currently resides in Chicago, IL.