welcome

〰️

welcome 〰️

Photos from the twinnings concert, July 2025 at the Darmstadt Festival

Photo Copyright: IMD / Kristof Lemp

concert reader: https://internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/ferienkurse/reader/twinnings/

VISTAS out now on Elektramusic

~ Welcome ~

I am a Chicago-based composer, performer, and intermedia artist. My work explores the intersections of contemporary concert music, electronic and electroacoustic music, live performance, and interactive installation work.

In addition to my creative work, i also work as a freelance audio tech and teach private composition lessons.

Thanks for stopping by my website! drop me a note through my contact form with any questions, comments, or inquiries.

enclosures

OUT NOW ON SAWYER EDITIONS

welcome

〰️

welcome 〰️

Featured
Compound Yellow Modular Solo Set
Sep 28
Compound Yellow Modular Solo Set
Kari Watson and Katinka Kleijn Duo International Anthem 11 x 11
Sep 29
Kari Watson and Katinka Kleijn Duo International Anthem 11 x 11
Avalon Lounge Solo Show - Catskill, NY
Oct 9
Avalon Lounge Solo Show - Catskill, NY
For Jen Torrence Danish Premier at the MINU Festival, Copenhagen, DK
Nov 27
For Jen Torrence Danish Premier at the MINU Festival, Copenhagen, DK
 

TETHER documentation - by Alex Halstead

Leaving Darmstadt thoroughly changed after 2 intense weeks, having seen so much amazing music, premiered two big pieces born from collaborations over the last year and a half, and having given a fully formed lecture on my work. Even more so, I am g
Leaving Darmstadt thoroughly changed after 2 intense weeks, having seen so much amazing music, premiered two big pieces born from collaborations over the last year and a half, and having given a fully formed lecture on my work. Even more so, I am grateful to have been in community with so many amazingly brave and creative artists who are living and making work through truly painful times, and at great personal risk. May we all continue to consciously work to protect the right to creative freedom for all, especially those most marginalized. This experience will stay with me. With love and solidarity - Free Palestine🇵🇸
So excited to be returning to @imd_darmstadt next week to share two new pieces, twinning, for violin duo and dmx lights, written for @mayabennardo and @ssaviet, and For Jen Torrence for solo percussionist and multimedia, written for @jetorrence with
So excited to be returning to @imd_darmstadt next week to share two new pieces, twinning, for violin duo and dmx lights, written for @mayabennardo and @ssaviet, and For Jen Torrence for solo percussionist and multimedia, written for @jetorrence with a video by @aka_lua, alongside a new work by @kllyshhn! Also really looking forward to giving a lecture entitled “Obscure, Augment, Transform: Speculations on Electronic Mediation” where I’ll talk about my approach to electronics in recent compositions💥 also looking forward to reuniting with @aaronhollowaynahum to play some modular duo sets in the Spatial Audio lab! Keep an ear out for more on that..🔊⚡️🔌 I am so grateful for the chance to have made these pieces via the Kranichstein prize I received in 2023. I have dreamed up these pieces for so long, both speaking to very different and very deep parts of my musical world. It’s been a total blessing to work on them with such incredible artists over the course of the last 2 years. Thank you to IMD for providing me the opportunity to realize these works in such an amazing setting, and alongside such incredible artists. See you soon @imd_darmstadt I can’t wait!! Image descriptions: 1&2) concert info from imd, pic by @_ash_dye_ 3) @womane.b and I at the ceremony in 2023 4) @mayabennardo & @ssaviet during a workshop in Berlin September 2024 5,6&7) workshop with @jetorrence in Oslo Sept 2024/July 2025 8) desk wt scores 9) rereading cyborg manifesto with Jen(:
Thank you @ihlaramcindoe for writing such a vivid and thoughtful review for enclosures for this month’s publication of Tempo @cambridgeuniversitypress! It’s rare to read writing about your own work that resonates so deeply with the core
Thank you @ihlaramcindoe for writing such a vivid and thoughtful review for enclosures for this month’s publication of Tempo @cambridgeuniversitypress! It’s rare to read writing about your own work that resonates so deeply with the core spirit of the music, I am so grateful. Full link to read in bio🔗 enclosures, out on @sawyer_editions is officially 6 months old! Thank you to everyone who who has taken the time to listen💌 infinite thank yous to everyone who is a part of this album @koryreeder @collective_lovemusic @quatuor_diotima @bmelsky @noissaxophone @lewisdanielt @_ash_dye_ & @gasira.t
VISTAS by Kari Watson & Katinka Kleijn is out now on @elektramusic.eu 🔊💥🌀 🎻 link in bio🔗 About Us: Kari Watson and Katinka Kleijn bring together a wide range of sounds, merging acoustic, analog, and digital sound sources and often exploring extended aspects of improvisation such as physicality, attunement, and embodiment. Combining cello, modular eurorack synthesizer, Max MSP, and handheld electronics, the two create tactile performance environments for their audiences. Together, Watson & Kleijn have a deep commitment to live performance as a venue for possibility, vulnerability, and variability. The two embrace improvisation as grounds for continual exploration of connection, empathy and risk. About VISTAS: An experiment in scale and vantage point, VISTAS consists of a single thirty-five-minute track that explores two seemingly contrasting sound sources: the acoustic cello and the eurorack analog modular synthesizer. Electrical circuits and metal strings warp and weft, rewiring and restringing a panoramic sonic tapestry. Watson and Kleijn transform and transpose their instruments, morphing from fusions to fissures, from discrete sonic characters to summations of astonishing blend. VISTAS gradually reveals different sides of these two instruments, illuminating their seams and edges, playing amidst and between a sonic language that blurs pitch, texture, and noise, refracting and rebuilding a tactile tectonic track. Mixed/Mastered by @davidbirdtv Album visuals by @_ash_dye_ Immense thanks to @paulclouvel & @elektramusic.eu💌
Something exciting is coming⚡️💥🎻🎧 keep an ear out for a new release from Katinka & I wt @elektramusic.eu 🥳 Love these new pics by @_ash_dye_
Something exciting is coming⚡️💥🎻🎧 keep an ear out for a new release from Katinka & I wt @elektramusic.eu 🥳 Love these new pics by @_ash_dye_
THIS WEEK in Chicago! @aaronhollowaynahum & I will be doing a mini modular duo tour, playing 3 shows at different spots around the city⚡️🔌💥 Wednesday May 28th playing duo @bimbom.studios - hear a little sneak preview above🔊 Thursday May 29th
THIS WEEK in Chicago! @aaronhollowaynahum & I will be doing a mini modular duo tour, playing 3 shows at different spots around the city⚡️🔌💥 Wednesday May 28th playing duo @bimbom.studios - hear a little sneak preview above🔊 Thursday May 29th a quadraphonics concert at Bond Chapel with Chicago legends @zachmorp & @goodzachary💪 also tech’d by the very best @frankthe_iv🎛️ we will all play solo sets, then play as a band, you won’t wanna miss this! Saturday May 31st a live studio recording session at 8pm @midnight.tea.chicago☕️🌙 wt the wonderful @calebwillitz
So excited to be in NYC this week for a premier with @yarnwire as part of their 2025 Currents Series @roulette_intermedium, presenting a new big piece I wrote them alongside another big new piece by @ashkan_behzadi!💥⚡️🔊 Concert is Wednesday night a
So excited to be in NYC this week for a premier with @yarnwire as part of their 2025 Currents Series @roulette_intermedium, presenting a new big piece I wrote them alongside another big new piece by @ashkan_behzadi!💥⚡️🔊 Concert is Wednesday night at 8pm @roulette_intermedium, hope to see you there! Also shared above - a note from Yarn Wire earlier this week. YW is an incredible ensemble, uplifting the work of composers from all corners of the contemporary music scene, embracing a broad range of styles & aesthetics, and in doing so, creating really exciting and dynamic programming. They also have a wonderful, empathetic, and collaborative approach when working with composers on new pieces, which makes all the difference when writing something ambitious, and leads to a really gratifying collaborative experience. I have always looked up to YW since I first began composing, and it’s super exciting and inspiring to get to work with them on my new piece Synthetics. They are such a force of good in the contemporary music scene, both in the US and abroad. It’s terrible what’s happening with cuts to grants and arts funding under the current administration, making it harder and harder for ensembles to get by. The work they do is so important, and deserves support! Please consider donating to them if you can!
Pinot and I here to share what’s coming up this month in Chicago & NYC💥⚡️💥 5/17 Point Source II @cutelab_nyc quad solo set🔊 5/18 Florasonics opening at the Lincoln Park Conservatory - has been so much fun collaborating on @ortwoman&rsqu
Pinot and I here to share what’s coming up this month in Chicago & NYC💥⚡️💥 5/17 Point Source II @cutelab_nyc quad solo set🔊 5/18 Florasonics opening at the Lincoln Park Conservatory - has been so much fun collaborating on @ortwoman’s installation @esschicago 🌿🌱 5/21 @yarnwire premiers SYNTHETICS @roulette_intermedium on their Currents series! Have been dreaming up this piece for a while, super excited about this concert🥁🎹 & then a Chicago mini tour of modular duo wt @aaronhollowaynahum⚡️ 5/28 @bimbom.studios 5/29 Quadraphonics at bond chapel wt @zachmorp & @goodzachary ***5/31 live studio session @midnight.tea.chicago Also! 6/1 so stoked to play duo with @corie_soumah as part of her @uchicago new music ensemble residency 🔊💥🔊
Been on a whole new journey singing into my modular rig, playing with feedback loops etc. had such a blast opening for @dana.jessen @youngunkatie & @benroidlward who premiered a new Eric Wubbles piece the other week @elasticarts! So excited to be
Been on a whole new journey singing into my modular rig, playing with feedback loops etc. had such a blast opening for @dana.jessen @youngunkatie & @benroidlward who premiered a new Eric Wubbles piece the other week @elasticarts! So excited to be opening for @jules_reidy @constellationchicago tmw night where I’ll continue with this set up. Chicago friends come on out this will be a fun show! Ty @dana.jessen for the pic((: and @sofie.pdf my love for these vids.
So excited to have my album enclosures on @sawyer_editions included in @bandcamp daily’s Best Contemporary Classical Music roundup for January! Thank you @pmargasak for lending such a thoughtful ear to this music! Chicago friends - album relea
So excited to have my album enclosures on @sawyer_editions included in @bandcamp daily’s Best Contemporary Classical Music roundup for January! Thank you @pmargasak for lending such a thoughtful ear to this music! Chicago friends - album release is this Sunday @tuskchicago! See you there?💿🤍💿🔊
Thank you so much Hannah Edgar & @musicalamerica for featuring me as artist of the month, and for writing such a thoughtful profile on me and my work.❣️ link in bio🔗 So grateful to be making music & to be surrounded by such an incredible cr
Thank you so much Hannah Edgar & @musicalamerica for featuring me as artist of the month, and for writing such a thoughtful profile on me and my work.❣️ link in bio🔗 So grateful to be making music & to be surrounded by such an incredible creative community in Chicago & beyond.
coming up on Sunday, Feb.9 @tuskchicago🗓️ a listening party for my album enclosures, recently release by @sawyer_editions💿 we’ll have wine pairings, plus a performance by @tinkatonk & I’s duo project at 6pm🔊 Chicago friends, save t
coming up on Sunday, Feb.9 @tuskchicago🗓️ a listening party for my album enclosures, recently release by @sawyer_editions💿 we’ll have wine pairings, plus a performance by @tinkatonk & I’s duo project at 6pm🔊 Chicago friends, save the date🤍
TODAY!🔊🔊🔊enclosures is out on all streaming platforms🩵 so grateful for all the people who made this album possible. Last slide features vid from @sofie.pdf’s camcorder this summer when I was running in the North Sea, & really captures
TODAY!🔊🔊🔊enclosures is out on all streaming platforms🩵 so grateful for all the people who made this album possible. Last slide features vid from @sofie.pdf’s camcorder this summer when I was running in the North Sea, & really captures how I feel today sharing this music🌊
Leaving Darmstadt thoroughly changed after 2 intense weeks, having seen so much amazing music, premiered two big pieces born from collaborations over the last year and a half, and having given a fully formed lecture on my work. Even more so, I am g So excited to be returning to @imd_darmstadt next week to share two new pieces, twinning, for violin duo and dmx lights, written for @mayabennardo and @ssaviet, and For Jen Torrence for solo percussionist and multimedia, written for @jetorrence with Thank you @ihlaramcindoe for writing such a vivid and thoughtful review for enclosures for this month’s publication of Tempo @cambridgeuniversitypress! It’s rare to read writing about your own work that resonates so deeply with the core
VISTAS by Kari Watson & Katinka Kleijn is out now on @elektramusic.eu 🔊💥🌀 🎻 link in bio🔗 About Us: Kari Watson and Katinka Kleijn bring together a wide range of sounds, merging acoustic, analog, and digital sound sources and often explori
Something exciting is coming⚡️💥🎻🎧 keep an ear out for a new release from Katinka & I wt @elektramusic.eu 🥳 Love these new pics by @_ash_dye_ THIS WEEK in Chicago! @aaronhollowaynahum & I will be doing a mini modular duo tour, playing 3 shows at different spots around the city⚡️🔌💥 Wednesday May 28th playing duo @bimbom.studios - hear a little sneak preview above🔊 Thursday May 29th So excited to be in NYC this week for a premier with @yarnwire as part of their 2025 Currents Series @roulette_intermedium, presenting a new big piece I wrote them alongside another big new piece by @ashkan_behzadi!💥⚡️🔊 Concert is Wednesday night a Pinot and I here to share what’s coming up this month in Chicago & NYC💥⚡️💥 5/17 Point Source II @cutelab_nyc quad solo set🔊 5/18 Florasonics opening at the Lincoln Park Conservatory - has been so much fun collaborating on @ortwoman&rsqu Been on a whole new journey singing into my modular rig, playing with feedback loops etc. had such a blast opening for @dana.jessen @youngunkatie & @benroidlward who premiered a new Eric Wubbles piece the other week @elasticarts! So excited to be So excited to have my album enclosures on @sawyer_editions included in @bandcamp daily’s Best Contemporary Classical Music roundup for January! Thank you @pmargasak for lending such a thoughtful ear to this music! Chicago friends - album relea Thank you so much Hannah Edgar & @musicalamerica for featuring me as artist of the month, and for writing such a thoughtful profile on me and my work.❣️ link in bio🔗 So grateful to be making music & to be surrounded by such an incredible cr coming up on Sunday, Feb.9 @tuskchicago🗓️ a listening party for my album enclosures, recently release by @sawyer_editions💿 we’ll have wine pairings, plus a performance by @tinkatonk & I’s duo project at 6pm🔊 Chicago friends, save t TODAY!🔊🔊🔊enclosures is out on all streaming platforms🩵 so grateful for all the people who made this album possible. Last slide features vid from @sofie.pdf’s camcorder this summer when I was running in the North Sea, & really captures

Free Music Resources I’ve been using:

https://dood.al/pinktrombone/

https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/

https://vcvrack.com/

https://modulargrid.net/