Jessica Pavone (Queens, NYC)

Acclaimed composer, violist, and improviser Jessica Pavone will release her sixth solo viola

album, ...Is In the Air, on October 16, 2026. Released jointly by Relative Pitch Records and

Weird Cry Records, the album will be available on CD through Relative Pitch and on vinyl

through Weird Cry. A remarkable addition to her acclaimed body of work, it is the solo album

listeners have been waiting for—intimate in scale yet powerful in its emotional and sonic reach.

For more than two decades, Pavone has forged a distinctive musical language rooted in the

viola's natural resonances, intuitive compositional approaches, and a deep sensitivity to sound

as a physical experience. With ...Is In the Air, she opens that language further, expanding the

idea of what a solo album can be through the incorporation of electronics and two collaborations

with guitarist Fred Frith and Fugazi bassist Joe Lally.

Based in Queens, New York, Pavone's work spans contemporary composition, improvisation,

electroacoustic music, and collaborations with dance and visual artists. Across these practices,

she explores sound as something tangible and felt, as much a vibration in the body as an

audible event.

“The prowess with which violist and composer Jessica Pavone creates sweeping, heartstring-tugging vistas is both cerebral and out of this world… Jessica Pavone is a freethinker who can’t be pigeonholed“

– Brad Cohen, Jazz Times

“Pavone [is] not like other composers she is uniquely herself, and from that stems the improbable strength of her music.”

-Julian Cowley, Wire Magazine

“There are certain musicians that you can say, with confidence, could play a pair of shoes if it had strings. Jessica Pavone is certainly one. In fact, I’m pretty sure Pavone could get a good tone out of Velcro’s clogs if she so desired.”

– David Nadelle, Tiny Mix Tapes