Crossing Borders Music: Haitian Flag Day Celebration

Founded in 2011, Crossing Borders Music has become a leading, critically acclaimed interpreter of chamber music by composers from under-represented cultures. Crossing Borders Music was a headline artist at the African Festival of the Arts, a resident arts organization at the Chicago Cultural Center, and has been presented by the Old Town School of Folk, Montréal’s Society for the Research and Promotion of Haitian Music (SRDMH), United World College of South East Asia, and at Chicago’s Symphony Center through the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s African American Network. Crossing Borders Music has been featured on NBC-5 and ABC-7 Chicago News, WFMT, and WBEZ, as well as in the Chicago Tribune and as a Critic’s Pick in TimeOut Chicago. 

Through a grant from The Chicago Community Trust, in August 2016, Crossing Borders Music released a world premiere album of newly commissioned string quartet music by Haitian composers Jean “Rudy” Perrault and Sabrina C. D. Jean Louis. Through a grant from the Sparkplug Foundation, Crossing Borders Music recorded a world premiere album of original chamber music with composer and Grammy-nominated sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar, which was released in 2023 on Ropeadope Records.

The Crossing Borders Music String Quartet 

Caroline Jesalva is a violinist and vocalist traversing the worlds of classical music, improvisation and experimental music. Inspired by Dadaism, her music explores experimental theater, poetry, classical repertoire, and free improvisation. 

As a violinist, Caroline has most recently performed with A Far Cry, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Callithumpian Consort, and recently premiered a new opera by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding, entitled Iphigenia. She has held fellowships with YellowBarn Young Artists, Bang-on-A Can, Black House Collective, and is a recent graduate of New England Conservatory of Music where she studied violin performance under the tutelage of Nicholas Kitchen (Borromeo String Quartet). 

She is the founder of Blind Glass ensemble, 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. A passionate educator, she has taught at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, and was on faculty at The People’s Music School in Chicago, IL. 

Violinist Sarah Kim has performed extensively as a chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. As a resident artist at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music from 2008 to 2013, Sarah performed internationally with the Apple Hill String Quartet, directed summer chamber music sessions, and taught master classes in universities such as UCLA, Colby College, Boston Conservatory, University of New Mexico, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Through Apple Hill’s innovative Playing for Peace program, Sarah performed and taught chamber music workshops in major conflict areas of the world, including Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, and Ireland. 

From 2017 to 2023, Sarah was a resident musician with Community MusicWorks, a nationally recognized community-based music performance and education program. In addition to her work at CMW, Sarah taught at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and from 2021 to 2023, Sarah taught violin and chamber music as a teaching associate at Brown University. 

Currently, Sarah teaches violin, viola, and chamber music at Loyola University Chicago and during the summer is on faculty at the Kinhaven Senior Session. Sarah has received degrees from Indiana University, Yale School of Music, and Stony Brook University, where her principal teachers were Josef Gingold, Miriam Fried, Peter Oundjian, Pamela Frank, and Phil Setzer. 

Wilfred Farquharson is a violist from outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys a multi-faceted performance career as studio, orchestral, and chamber musician. In addition, he also enjoys teaching violists and nurturing their love for music. Wilfred currently serves as a faculty member of the Merit School of Music. 

In the summer of 2022, Wilfred performed as a fellow with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. From 2020 to 2022, he was a Los Angeles Orchestra Fellow, where he mentored students of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra while a graduate student at the University of Southern California. While in Los Angeles, he also performed live and in-studio sessions with the Re-Collective Orchestra, and performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as a substitute violist. 

Wilfred attended the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University as a Premier Young Artist and Hudson and Holland Scholar. During his undergraduate studies at the Jacobs School he studied with Stephen Wyrczynski, Masumi Per Rostad, and was further mentored by Ed Gazouleas, Anne Epperson, and the Pacifica Quartet. Wilfred has also been selected to perform in many masterclasses for world-class artists, such as Pinchas Zukerman, the Dover Quartet, the Ritz Chamber Players, Carol Rodland, Jeffrey Irvine, Kirsten Doctor, and Melia Watres. 

Tom Clowes is a Chicago-area cellist and Founder of Crossing Borders Music. Tom was a student of internationally acclaimed cellist Wendy Warner, former Detroit Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Italo Babini, and Lawrence University Conservatory of Music Professor Janet Anthony. As a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he played under conductors Riccardo Muti, Peter Oundjian, and Cliff Colnot. In the summers, he teaches at the Ambassadors Music Institute in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. Before moving to Chicago, Tom was a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. For twelve years, he proudly taught at the outstanding Chicago West Community Music Center of Garfield Park.