Join us for the opening reception for our new visual gallery exhibition Girlhood 2, from artists Alexa Gutierrez and Madeline Penzel.

The reception is free admission and open to all. 7pm!

A string-focused night with drummer Weasel Walter assembling a quartet with 2 violins and double bass coupled with Akjai, a quartet with violin, cello, double bass, and vocals brought in by our very own Ishmael Ali.

This month’s Pleiades features pianist Laurie Lee Moses and clarinetist Sarah Craft, first brought together at our Improv Jam and now performing as a duo. They’re followed by Heavy Tiny (Lia Kohl and Nick Meryhew), a dense miniature world of field recordings, synths, walkie-talkies, and found objects that feels bigger inside than out.  

Following the performances we’ll have our classics Pleiades Jam open to all femme/trans/non-binary performers. Bring your instrument, body, voice! Sign up at pleiades@elasticarts.org or when you arrive.

We have a very special Elastro series to close out 2025 w/ SMACT Ensemble, Yes Yes Nooky, and Giallorenzo/Jesalva/Damon!

The first Frequency Leak DRONE READ is here at Elastic Arts!

This event is intended to create an environment for listening to live ambient drone music while reading (BYOBook) and to encourage people to talk about what they are reading with friends, maybe make some new friends, or spawn a book club. Come at the beginning to read, come at the end to dance.

The space will be set with cozy reading areas and individual book lights will be provided. The evening will start with static lights and installations. Visuals and fog will be brought in after the drone read for the DJ sets.

Heliogabalus is Eric Leonardson, springboard; Lili Wosko, cello; Andy Cohn, piano; Christophe Preissing, flutes, voice, noise box; with special guest, Tatsu Aoki, shamisen. Heliogabalus, or Elagabalus in honor of the god his family worshiped, was a Roman emperor known for their extravagant and eccentric behavior. Sometimes celebrated as an example of an ancient transgender person, their brief reign acts as a prism into religion, gender and sexuality, ethnicity and racism presaging modern themes. Like Heliogabalus, the group's improvisations are unrestrained, elaborate, ornate, and excessive.

Carol Genetti and Riley Leitch will perform duo. Carol Genetti is a Chicago-based vocalist whose work encompasses sound and visual art media. Her vocal palette is primordial, existing in a space where “language” and “music” have yet to be formulated into familiar cultural patterns. Riley Leitch is a composer and performer of contemporary, creative, and freely improvised music. His practice is founded around trombone playing but extends across multiple disciplines.

8:30 Genetti/Leitch Duo

9:30 Heliogabalus wsg Tatsu Aoki

$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door

We gather during the holidays once again to celebrate Elastic Arts, our community, and the great things that have happened with the organization over the past year.

We'll have a few nibbles and sips, fellowship and music, warmth, comfort, joy, and a chance to become an Elastic Arts Member!

Bring anyone you love and anything you'd love to share.

‘A Defiant Echo’ is a multimedia play written and directed by Kyle Gregory Price. The premiere of this play will utilize Elastic Arts’ CLEAT sound system as well as multi-channel video. Britt Anderson, Richie Schiraldi, Kao, Surinder Martignetti, Gordon Fung and Justin Cavazos perform live with interspersed projections of Deirdre Harrison and Brian Shaw.

FFFT returns for its third iteration of sound and movement collaborations for 2025! Freedom From and Freedom To is an exploration and celebration of artistic circumstance. Movement and sound improvisors from all around Chicago gather in front of a live audience, where they are grouped by chance. Each group performs an improvised set. We fuse diverse artistic backgrounds and practices to create unique and fleeting worlds. There will be a special opening set from musicians Caitlin Edwards, Avreeayl Ra, and Yaw alongside dancers Solomon Bowser and Rahila Coats. Following we’ll have 6 x 15 minute sets from on-the-spot lottery chosen ensembles. Don’t miss this!

Shake Shook Shaken is a theater/movement workshop series produced by Julie Meckler. The series is designed for people to gently bring body awareness, allowing participants to open up, explore outside of their comfort zone, bond with each other, create and show. By playing with these concepts using our bodies, voices, words, and each other, we will explore our own awareness and sensitivity as artists and people. 

Tonight features groups lead by young improvisers in Chicago’s free music scene! Don’t call them up and coming—they’ve already more than arrived, and have the sound to prove it.

We’re pleased to host two very special CLEAT Series events in December, starting with an evening with Chicago artists Macie Stewart and Sen Morimoto!

In honor of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) 60TH Anniversary, legendary percussionist and Rhythm Testament founder, Carlos Pride, has curated an unforgettable performance. The AACM Percussion Ensemble, featuring world-class talents like Paul Cotton (Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, Don Moye’s Sun Percussion Summit & The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra under the direction of Fareed Haque), & Felix “D-Kat” Pollard (Lionel Richie, Sheila E, & Chaka Khan). These three masters span four continents including Africa, Asia, North America & South America, to create a groundbreaking fusion of rhythms and sounds. Instruments such as The African Talking Drum, Mbira, Djembe, Himalayan Singing Bowls, Cajon, Diddley Bow, Lap Steel Guitar & Roland Handsonic will weave together the vibrant traditions of the past and the innovative spirit of the present, all under the banner of Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future.

Join us to celebrate the Black Friday Record Store Day release of Power to Consume, a double-album tribute to Lou Reed's seminal Metal Machine Music. Headlining the evening is Mark Solotroff, performing in support of his contribution to this landmark release from Sony Music/Legacy Recordings. Solotroff's decades-long journey through underground music explores the depths of sound with analog synthesizers and voice, as the founder of projects like Anatomy of Habit and BLOODYMINDED. His solo work is a sonic landscape of bass-heavy synth compositions that reflect on modern themes of grief and isolation. Supporting Solotroff are three compelling Chicago-based artists. Exhumed Corpse, the solo project of Sam Dour, takes you on a slow-motion descent into subsonic dread with bleak, dark industrial soundscapes built from decaying tape loops and salvaged audio equipment. Black Triangle Badge, the solo work of audio engineer Kenny Rasmussen, crafts unpredictable soundtracks of unease that reflect a world plagued by fascism and hate. Finally, Starvation Cage will deliver a violent, percussive, and unrelenting performance, drawing from the primal brutality of combat sports and the chaos of everyday existence. Prepare for an evening of powerful, uncompromising sound.

Pianist and a Partner (Perhaps) is BACK! At this fourth edition, we have Jim Baker w/ Vincent Davis, Erez Dessel w/ Kim Alpert, Mabel Kwan w/ Ayako Kato, Nolan Chin (solo), and Sharon Udoh hosting + in duo with Chris Corsano to kick of the night. Join us at 8pm!

Re-reunion(s) is an audience lead interpretation of John Cage and Marcel Duchamp's performance reunion. Reunion was a multichannel performance where Cage and Duchamp played/performed chess matches with a chess board that was designed to operate like a sound mixer. Whenever a chess piece was moved on the board, a series of prepared sounds were remixed and rearranged within a multi-speaker system.

We welcome Florian Nastorg from Toulouse, France with a stellar quartet assembled by Hunter Diamond. .VOM opens up the night with an ambient sax /guitar duo.

In conjunction with Experimental Sound Studio and the CLEAT Series we continue our series of artist-led introduction workshops exploring spatial audio.

This week we feature Hugo Flores Garcia. More info TBA

November’s Pleiades Series serves as a record release celebration for Amanda Kraus’ project Soft Five! We’ll also hear from abstract voice/electronics composer Paige Alice Naylor. It will be a very special Monday night!

We invite you to join Seraph Brass for an afternoon of music and community in support of their upcoming projects. Proceeds from this fundraiser will help make possible initiatives such as a residency with BLUME Haiti, a music education program serving young musicians in Haiti, while also advancing their mission to amplify the voices of women and underrepresented communities in music.

The CLEAT Series returns in November with two solo performances of spatial audio w/ V. Vecker and Brady Matteson.

LuFuki’s Meditations Ensemble (Detroit) was put together to encourage audience contemplation through sound using the powerful messages of improvisation. Featuring special guests Chad Khouri and Airon Azure.

Alter Ego is an experimental duo consisting of pianists Mabel Kwan and Sharon Udoh. Tonight, they'll be joined by drummer/percussionist Bill Harris and saxophonist/clarinetist Edward Wilkerson, Jr. to form Alter Ego Plus.

8:30 LuFuki: Meditations

9:30 Alter Ego Plus: Harris/Kwan/Udoh/Wilkerson, Jr.

$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door

In conjunction with Experimental Sound Studio and the CLEAT Series we continue our series of artist-led introduction workshops exploring spatial audio.

This week we feature Kate In. More info TBA

AIRMW CELEBRATES THE MULTI-CULTURAL, MULTI-ETHNIC REALITY OF CHICAGO  WITH THE 30th ANNUAL CHICAGO ASIAN AMERICAN JAZZ FESTIVAL AT ELASTIC ARTS NOV. 7-10 

AIRMW CELEBRATES THE MULTI-CULTURAL, MULTI-ETHNIC REALITY OF CHICAGO  WITH THE 30th ANNUAL CHICAGO ASIAN AMERICAN JAZZ FESTIVAL AT ELASTIC ARTS NOV. 7-10 

AIRMW CELEBRATES THE MULTI-CULTURAL, MULTI-ETHNIC REALITY OF CHICAGO  WITH THE 30th ANNUAL CHICAGO ASIAN AMERICAN JAZZ FESTIVAL AT ELASTIC ARTS NOV. 7-10 

AIRMW CELEBRATES THE MULTI-CULTURAL, MULTI-ETHNIC REALITY OF CHICAGO  WITH THE 30th ANNUAL CHICAGO ASIAN AMERICAN JAZZ FESTIVAL AT ELASTIC ARTS NOV. 7-10 

The artists of The Bridge and Trempo, a French training program for professional musicians, meet for an evening centered around improvisation as a space for freedom.

A film by Selina Trepp of footage from Spectralina's 2024 Residency at Elastic Arts, featuring stream footage and videography by Scott Teresi.