Alisa Kolot

Alisa Kolot is a sound designer, composer, and pianist based in Chicago. As a pianist-improviser Alisa is influenced by contemporary, jazz, free-form, and baroque traditions that she blends with electronics and extended technique. She released two fully improvised solo piano albums in May 2019 titled ‘Spring’ and ‘Sorrel.’ An alumni the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY with a bachelor’s degree in classical piano, Alisa began improvising through her studies of atonal music and numerology. Her fascination lead to her studying the multitude of ways the Fibonacci Sequence could be fit into 12 tone improvisation. 

In March 2019 Alisa collaborated with Harvard's Libary Innovation Lab, metaLab, and FK Productions on 'Alterspace.' Alterspace is an immersive experience that gives library patrons control over light, color, sound, and space. Her compositions featured electronic pieces and natural sounds, allowing the patron to layer audio for a personalized experience (be they at the library for reading, studying, meditating, etc).

This fall she completed the musician's residency at the Banff Center for the Arts and Creativity in Canada where she worked with piano, synth, and remote MIDI sensor to complete three soundscape compositions. Through studying field recording, extended piano technique, and acoustics her work explores the blend of natural and digital texture from a musical and sound art perspective.