Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg is a sound artist, composer, and shape note singer whose work explores the intersections technology and tradition. His work delves into personal narrative and the rootedness of history in geology and place. His output encompasses 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 has 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 Northeast, and his experimental music has been performed by Pauline Oliveros, Anne Rhodes, Micah Silver, Angela Opell, Caterina De Re, and Tim Eastman, among others. He is a member of Tintinnabulate, an improvising ensemble founded by Pauline Oliveros, whose members achieve harmony through intuition, play, and sympathetic resonance. He is also a member of Festival Harmony, a chorus dedicated to the performance of new and old music in the shape note tradition.

Jesse recently 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 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 Conflux Festival in Brooklyn, NY, the Boston Cyberarts Festival, Jessica Murray Projects in Chelsea, the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, 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 has given lectures and presented shape note singing workshops at Google Inc. and the Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, MA among other locations. With the Society for a Subliminal State, Jesse is the recipient of a New York State Council on the Arts individual artist grant. Other grants include a grant 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 Troy, NY.