About this Event
Lesley Mok is a New York City-based percussionist, composer, and sound artist. Their work is guided by a continual search for the connection between the mundane and the divine, the experience and manipulation of time, and a desire to capture emotional dissonance and complexity. Drawing from American experimental music and the lineage of the AACM, Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions, drumline, and the sounds and textures of the natural environment, their practice moves fluidly between composition, improvisation, and electronic sound.
Lesley’s ongoing explorations in composition and improvisation are documented in their debut album, The Living Collection , released in May 2023 on American Dreams Records. Described as “an exquisite and stimulating work” by All About Jazz and “a singularly personal statement” by Jazz Trail Magazine, the album was named International Debut Album of the Year at the 2024 Deutscher Jazz Preis.
Their solo LP, transient , released in July 2026 on American Dreams Records, expands their practice into beat-making, electronic composition, and the transformation of acoustic sound. The album has received acclaim from PopMatters and Foxy Digitalis, with JazzTimes describing it as music that “asks the listener to participate in shaping meaning through sustained attention rather than genre-based categorization.”
As a collaborator, Lesley has shared the stage with Tomeka Reid, William Parker, Ingrid Laubrock, Marilyn Crispell, Craig Taborn, Myra Melford, Mary Halvorson, Anna Webber, Kenny Barron, Cory Smythe, Jen Shyu, Kalia Vandever, Camila Nebbia, Micah Thomas, and Rafiq Bhatia, among others.
They have performed throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Roulette Intermedium, SFJAZZ, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Forbidden City Concert Hall, Unerhört Festival, Jazzowa Jesień, Cologne Jazz Festival, moers festival, Panama Jazz Festival, and Dominican Republic Jazz Festival.
Event venue & nearby stays
60 SW 2nd St, 60 Southwest 2nd Street, Gainesville, United States
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