Jessica Gould

Jessica Gould a multifaceted career as writer, soprano, artistic director, and award-winning filmmaker with over 50 laurels to her name, including Best Original Script from the London International Monthly Film Festival, and Best First Time Director from the Silk Road Festival Cannes, 1st Monthly Film Festival Belgrade, and Dreamer's Film Festival Bucharest, all for Babylon: Ghetto, Renaissance, and Modern Oblivion.
Ms. Gould’s program notes include essays for Carnegie Hall, the Clarion Society (New York City), the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia), the Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), NYU Villa La Pietra (Florence), Palazzo Grimani (Venice), and Villa Finaly La Chancellerie des Universités de Paris – La Sorbonne (Florence), among many others. Her creative nonfiction, satire, and essays have been published in the literary journals Belle Ombre, The Blue Nib, Exquisite Pandemic, and Months to Years. A soprano, artistic director, Italian translator, and researcher, she performs and records in Europe and the United States. As the Founder and Artistic Director of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, based in New York City, her original projects have received grants from numerous foundations and institutions, generous support which has enabled the series to blossom into one of the more significant presenters of historical performance in New York City and beyond.
Recital appearances include guest artist with lutenist Nigel North on the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Faculty Series and the Rowan University College of Performing Arts, L'Église de St. Jean Baptiste in Montréal and Villa Finaly in Florence with Pascal Valois, early romantic guitar, and at Palazzo Grimani on the Musiche dei Grimani series in Venice and the Cappella di San Luca of the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. Previous soloist appearances as chamber musician include La Serenissima Festival of Carnegie Hall with L'Aura Soave Cremona, the Cassatt Quartet at the Guggenheim Museum Works & Process Series, the Clarion Society, and the Four Nations Ensemble, among others in the United States, and abroad with L’Aura Soave Cremona at the Teatro all’Antica di Sabbioneta, Villa Finaly – La Chancellerie des Universités de la Sorbonne (Florence), the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone (Rome) the Great Synagogue of Florence, Palazzo Bardi, the Istituto Francese of Florence, and with Musica Ricercata at the Library of San Marco and Palazzo Davanzati (Florence). With L'Aura Soave Cremona she has also performed at Palazzo Gondi in Florence and the Palazzo Ducale of Sassuolo. Upcoming performances in Europe include the Festival de l'Unité d'Art Sacré de Gosnay in France, among others.
As Founder and Artistic Director of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, her original programming spanning a millennium of music has been praised as “impeccably curated” by Time Out New York, “highly original” by The New York Times, and “imaginative” by New York Magazine. Honored with a residency at Villa Finaly, the Florentine home of the Sorbonne, she is tasked with researching, programming, and performing original concerts which explore the ties between Italy and France from the Baroque to the early Romantic era. She is the only American ever invited to create programs for four notable Florentine institutions: Palazzo Bardi, Palazzo Gondi, Palazzo Guicciardini, and L’Associazione per Boboli.
In 2019, she was invited by the Museum of Palazzo Grimani and the Scuola di Musica Antica Venezia to embark on a collaboration in order to conceive and present original programs reflecting the rich musical history of the Venetian Baroque, and the extraordinary contributions made by the Grimani family in various generations to that history.
In 2017, her original program From Ghetto to Cappella was included in the La Serenissima festival of Carnegie Hall. An exploration of the cross-fertilization of Jewish and Catholic cultures in Counter-Reformation Italy, the program had been previously presented in Italy by the Great Synagogue of Florence and by the Teatro all'Antica di Sabbioneta, one of three remaining Renaissance theaters in the world today, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Her program exploring the myth of Dido within the context of colonialism in the Maghreb, Carthage Conquer'd, was included in the seasons of both the Sorbonne and NYU Villa La Pietra. From Ghetto to Palazzo, her program dedicated to the groundbreaking Jewish composer Salomone Rossi, has been adopted by numerous institutions, including the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, Congregation Shearith Israel, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Her program dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, Maria Cosway, and the Separation of Church and State, More Between Heaven and Earth, received the co-sponsorship of two notable American institutions – the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, of which Jefferson served as President, and the Fraunces Tavern Museum, site of Washington's administration.