tilt exists in the space between improvisation and song, elastic and flowing, their music emerges from a shared love of words and experimentation. This Brooklyn-based collective brings together the voices of Isabel Crespo Pardo, Kalia Vandever, Carmen Q Rothwell. The intimacy found in the ensemble is apparent through their evolving chemistry on stage and their symbiotic improvisational approach. tilt premiered at bop dubu in Red Hook, Brooklyn in July 2022, with performances ongoing in NYC. tilt will be touring the West Coast in February 2023 in anticipation of their first album.

Kalia Vandever (she/her) is an American trombonist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her approach to the trombone is distinctive and defined by her sonorous tone and lyrical improvisational voice. She leans into the challenges of the instrument and allows patience and melody guide her process. Kalia received her Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School in 2017.  She has toured and performed internationally with her quartet, performing at festivals such as the Winter Jazz Festival and BRIC Jazz Festival. She is also known for her work as a side-woman, performing with jazz artists including  Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, Fay Victor, to name a few. She has also performed with popular artists including Harry Styles, Lizzo, Japanese Breakfast, Moses Sumney, Jennifer Hudson, and Demi Lovato.

Carmen Q Rothwell (she/her) is an upright bassist working at the intersection of creative, improvised, and contemporary music in New York City. She has performed with Andrew D’Angelo, David Murray, Ben Monder, Bill McHenry, Dave Douglas, Cuong Vu, Ted Poor, Wally Shoup, Wayne Horvitz, Jacob Sacks, and Kenny Wollesen, among many others. Originally from Seattle, WA, she grew up playing in school bands and orchestras, and went on to study music in the University of Washington’s Jazz Studies program. She quickly became a prominent voice in Seattle’s jazz and improvised music scenes, earning the Earshot Jazz award for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2014. She moved to NYC in 2016 and has since been performing and collaborating with some of the most creative jazz musicians on the scene, as well as with improvisers, songwriters, and interdisciplinary artists across many genres.

Isabel Crespo Pardo (they/them) is a NYC-based latinx vocalist, improviser, composer, and visual artist. They focus on organizing and creating art that constantly evolves to reflect the intra/interpersonal spaces they inhabit. Their practice is nourished by curiosity and (dis)comfort. Reveling in soft chaos, they embrace openness and specificity to create poetic work(s). For Crespo, art is a place to gather, to exercise intuition, rigor and delight. Their compositions are rooted in conceptual clarity, often entangling music with visual art, text and movement.