Photo by Jonathan Finlayson
isabel crespo pardo (they/them) is a NYC-based latinx vocalist, improviser-composer, and interdisciplinary artist. Their work actively entangles music, visual art, text and performance, always evolving to reflect the intra/interpersonal spaces they inhabit. Reveling in soft chaos, they embrace openness and specificity to create poetic work(s).
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crespo is patiently unearthing their solo practice. In Fall 2023, they premiered sin rumbo (2023), created as part of their Roulette Residency. This evening length piece is an ode to wandering and waiting, a participatory solo piece featuring voice, movement and moving image. crespo’s solo project, iiisa, comes as an outgrowth of sin rumbo, an extended exercise in tracing back and looking forward, with the hope of consistent renewal.
For crespo, art is a place to gather, to exercise intuition, rigor and delight. They are deeply invested in building generative structures and intentionally inviting others into focused explorations. crespo’s main compositional vehicle is sinonó, a poemsong trio featuring themself (voice), Lester St. Louis (cello), and Henry Fraser (bass). Sculpting the music together in real time, they create poignant and shifting sonic topographies. sinonó’s debut album, la espalda y su punto radiante was released in early 2024 via Subtext Recordings. crespo’s compositions can also be heard on el rostro (des)cubierto (Lobby Art Editions), a collection of eight deeply intimate pieces for voice, qanun, guitar and bass that weave composition and improvisation together to explore self and sociality. They’ve continued this work via a new set of music for quartet, premiered at their Stone residency in July 2024. More soon!
Recent evening length works include Mighty Angel…come down clothed in rainbow-head (2024), an experimental play co-created and performed with Anna Abondolo. This performance piece exhibits the tension between our hopeful and despondent tendencies via voice, plucked strings, fixed media, sculpture, and haunting monologues. In November 2022, crespo premiered 6., a six-week interdisciplinary installation piece performed by crespo and five close collaborators, making use of screen printing, sculpture and sound to activate contemplation of community and improvisation. In June 2022, they premiered drip, drip, a co-created site-specific piece with edi kwon in the catacombs of the Green-Wood Cemetery. Inspired by this historic space and sharing in each other’s grief and light, the duo crafted a ritual of transformation through improvisation, movement, poetry, and the use of found objects. In May 2022, they premiered desbordándome, a large-scale embroidered graphic score composed for sinonó exploring themes of change, interconnectedness, and failure, as well as the expressive and sonic potential of words.
“isabel crespo pardo is an electrifying figure [...] with practices that collide and meld a variety of approaces, whether rooted in tradition or radical, through the lens of improvisation”
crespo is consistently involved in collaborative projects. tilt brings together the voices of crespo, Kalia Vandever and Carmen Quill. The warmth of their songs is an intimate reflection of each individual, and can be heard on their debut album, something we once knew (Dear Life Records). toso toso, featuring crespo, Sky Hill, Rahul Carlberg and Kabir Adihya-Kumar, writes explosive and winding songs soon to be released on Leaving Records. crespo was featured as a vocalist and improviser-composer on SECONDARY, a five-channel video installation written and directed by Matthew Barney with musical direction by Jonathan Bepler. They have also had the pleasure of collaborating and performing works by Brent Michael Davidson, Susan Campos Fonseca, Sandra Mujinga, and Raven Chacón.
Institutions that have recognized and shaped Crespo's artistic trajectory include: Loghaven Artist Residency, Bang on a Can’s LOUD WEEKEND Festival, Liberation Sounds, The Wire, Dada Strain, New Latin Wave, The Stone curated by John Zorn, Roulette Residency supported by the Jerome Foundation, Noguchi Museum, MATA Festival, New Amsterdam Composers Lab, Van Lier Fellowship, Roulette Intermedium, Metropolis Ensemble, New Music Edmonton, BIPOC Residency for Artists & Culture Workers by Taja Will, Earthdance Contact Improvisation Residency, New England Conservatory (MM), Institute for Musical Arts, Spiderweb Salon, Art & Words Festival, Greater Denton Arts Council, University of North Texas (BM), Siena International Jazz Workshop, Keep an Eye Jazz Workshop at Conservatorium van Amsterdam, The Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency, and the Conservatorio de Castella.