Lesley Mok is a New York City-based percussionist 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. Lesley is inspired by American experimental music as informed by the lineage of the AACM, sounds and textures from the natural environment, Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions, drumline, and songwriters and composers like Arthur Russell and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Lesley’s ongoing explorations with composition and improvisation are most notably documented in their debut album The Living Collection (released May 2023 on American Dreams Records). The album, described as “an exquisite and stimulating work” by All About Jazz and “a singularly personal statement” by Jazz Trail Magazine, was named International Debut Album of the Year at the 2024 Deutscher Jazz Preis.

Other work include stilled leaf-chatter (2022), bird in its chest (2022), pooling light (2021), but I forced to mind my vision of a sky (2020), and she smashed the enclosure (2020).

Lesley is a recipient of the 2024 ASCAP Fred Ho Award, 2022 Resident Artist at Roulette Intermedium, a Hermitage Fellow, and the 2021 Van Lier Artist at the Asian American Arts Alliance. Their work has been commissioned and performed by International Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, and JACK Quartet.

As a collaborator, Lesley has shared the stage with Tomeka Reid, William Parker, Ingrid Laubrock, Craig Taborn, Mary Malvorson, Kenny Barron, Cory Smythe, Jen Shyu, Kalia Vandever, yuniya edi kwon, Fay Victor, Micah Thomas, Rafiq Bhatia, and James Brandon Lewis among others. They have performed throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe, including the Met Museum, Roulette Intermedium, SF Jazz, The Boston Museum of Fine Art, Forbidden City Concert Hall, Unerhört Festival, Jazzowa Jesien, Cologne Jazz Festival, moers festival, Panama Jazz Festival, and Dominican Republic Jazz Festival.