The eveing will feature live painting from visual artist Ryan Miller
Mycelium New Music is a Chicago-based ensemble committed to creating imaginative, multidisciplinary performances of contemporary music that showcase diverse emerging voices. mycelium collaborates with composers, performers, and artists, and curates impactful and adventurous programming in Chicago’s artistic ecosystem and beyond.
Mycelium’s 25/26 season deep roots, wild sounds presents three performances across Chicago. Highlights include collaborations with experimental music legend Pamela Z, visual artist Ruby Que, yangqin player Cheng Jin Koh, and soprano Kristina Bachrach, and compositions by rising star composers including Saad Haddad, Baldwin Giang, Sofia Jen Ouyang, and Charles Peck. The ensemble’s rhizome project brings three emerging composers to Chicago each year to workshop, perform, and record a recent work for sextet, and its s.p.o.r.e. series presents immersive, multimedia-driven performances of chamber music across the city. Launched in 2024, mycelium’s debut season included a performance alongside composer and alt-folk vocalist Annika Socolofsky, a premiere by Bobby Ge paired with readings by Chicago-based poets, and exciting new and recent works by composers Christian Quinones, Ania Vu, Seare Farhat, and more.
The ensemble takes its name from the mycelial network, the underground web of fungi that symbiotically connects an entire forest. Mycelium New Music cultivates connection, curiosity, and a shared musical ecology that thrives underground and bursts into light.
Event Description:
mycelium new music presents folk songs, a program exploring connections between contemporary classical music and musical traditions from around the world. The performance showcases music by three living composers who engage with folk traditions: Saad Haddad’s Selig Licht, which blends with the rhythmic and melodic framework of Arabic music with a Bach chorale, Charles Peck’s colorful and groovy Kindling, which is influenced by bluegrass fiddle techniques, and Cheng Jin Koh’s YAMA, which will feature the composer playing the yangqin (chinese hammered dulcimer) alongside the ensemble. Ethnomusicologist Varshini Narayanan leads a panel discussion with the composers about their compositional influences and musical backgrounds, before guest artist soprano Kristina Bachrach joins mycelium to perform Luciano Berio’s lush and lyrical Folk Songs.
Program
Selig Licht for pierrot ensemble – Saad Haddad
Kindling for pierrot ensemble – Charles Peck
YAMA for pierrot ensemble – Cheng Jin Koh
Folk Songs for voice and seven instruments – Luciano Berio
Musicians:
Justin Weiss, conductor/co-artistic director
Paul Novak, flute/co-artistic director
Michael Tran, clarinet
Dylan Feldpausch, violin
Isidora Nojkovic, cello
Jonathan Hannau, piano
Kyle Flens, percussion
with guest artists:
Kristina Bachrach, soprano
Kari Novilla, harp
7pm Doors
7:30pm Show
In-Person Only
$20 Suggest Donation
FREE PARKING
