Join us for the release show for Casts new album Desire Path.

Please join us for the 8th Annual Elastic Arts Benefit! We need your support to remain a sustainable space for creative music, art, and performance. The event will highlight all of the wonderful human creativity that makes Elastic Arts so special.

The 2026 Elastic Achievement Award will be presented to the legendary Chicago artist Renee C. Baker who is a conceptualist and recontextualist working across sound art, visual art, film, and duration. 

We have a special show tonight featuring Corey Smith’s new work Essay on Resonance with an opening set from Lia Kohl and Nick Meryhew’s Heavy Tiny project!

Welcome Mehrnam Rastegari for her Chicago debut with a Persian Music Salon at Elastic Arts on May 12th!

Presented by People of Rhythm and BIYA BIYA, this culturally rooted evening features a traditional set of Iranian music. Steeped in the sweet vibes of an intimate salon, the night also centers local musicians, poetry, and a mini arts market.

Join us for an evening of bass clarinet music hosted by Tommy Shermulis, the bass clarinetist, clarinetist, and saxophonist currently based in Chicago, Illinois.

The May CLEAT Series welcomes nnirror in from Detroit, Michigan for a solo presentation, a brass ensemble from Elastic mainstay Ben Zucker, and a solo performance from Crystina Windham!

Julian Kirshner assembles a first-time outing alongside saxophonist Nick Anaya and bassist Christopher Dammann.

The Zerang/Shead/Harris/Walter ensemble brings together four singular percussionists—Michael Zerang, Adam Shead, Bill Harris, and Weasel Walter—who collectively represent nearly forty years of evolution within Chicago’s experimental music ecosystem.

8:30 pm: Anaya/Dammann/Kirshner
9:30 pm: Zerang/Shead/Harris/Walter Percussion Quartet

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

We’re happy to host Okapi Duo in from Asheville North Carolina, with solo sets from Emily Beisel and Nolan Chin to round out the evening.

Please join us for a reading with Imad Al Suliman: a Berlin-based human rights advocate and writer whose work bridges literature and political testimony through the themes of exile, memory, displacement, and belonging.

Join us for an incredibly special night of sounds! The trio of Yea Big, Jon Byler Dann, and Nakatani (winds, double bass, and percussion respectively) first performed together a couple years back when YB booked the Nakatani Gong Orchestra (which YB and Dann both performed in) and arranged with Nakatani for the trio to open the concert.

AfriClassical Futures is proud to present Theresa May and her moniker Dizygotic Energy. For this event we’ll be presenting the series with our friends at The.BlkRoom

Join us at Elastic Arts to celebrate this monumental occasion in Chicago culture: both the first retrospective collection of Dr. Smith's work, as well as the first album of his work made widely available outside the City of Chicago. Collected Works and War of the Martian Ghosts releases April 3, 2026 on Chicago's Sooper Records. The double vinyl / triple CD collection is the definitive album of Charles' original recordings—and includes 9000 words of liner notes about his life and work, and 30 archival photographs. Sooper is also making his autobiography widely available for the first time to coincide with the release. 

Join us for a special afternoon activation of our current visual gallery exhibition Too Tender Headed with Kush Thompson!

An evening defined by restlessness and sonic curiosity - excited to feature drummer and sound artist Devin Gray on his solo US tour, followed by a new Chicago trio by Will Greene that will take the momentum to new levels.

Chicago percussionist and composer Tim Daisy has prepared a new set of scores for two percussionists and piano, which he will present every Monday in April as part of the Homeroom Residency series at Elastic Arts.

On April 26 at 7:30pm, the next iteration of The Middle features a new trio—flutist Priya Fink, oboist Will Stevens and bassist JT O’Toole—presenting an eclectic, multi-genre chamber music program. All active classical performers, the trio shares a collective desire to present concert music in a way that feels fresh, inviting, and relevant.

Collaborators Kioto Aoki, Haruhi Kobayashi and Mai Sugimoto appear as the Miminari Trio, after their album "Miminari" released from AIRecords in fall 2025. Their backgrounds in traditional folk, jazz, and electronic sounds coalesce into unique sonic dialogues grounded in experimental improvisation. 

Sound artist and musician Nicole Alonso is Mrs. Hands. She uses unconventional sampling techniques and improvisation to create textured and collage-like soundscapes to explore themes of memory and identity.

Violet Booleans is the improvising duo of violinist/violist Magnolia Rohrer (violin/viola) and electronic musician Derek Worthington (laptop).

Keefe Jackson (sax/clarinet), Peter Maunu (guitar/violin), and Christopher Dammann (bass) join Jacob Little Cloud Fawcett (drums) for a set of improvised music. This will be the first time the quartet has performed together.

8:30 pm: Violet Booleans
9:30 pm: Jackson + Maunu + Dammann + Little Cloud Fawcett

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

Chicago percussionist and composer Tim Daisy has prepared a new set of scores for two percussionists and piano, which he will present every Monday in April as part of the Homeroom Residency series at Elastic Arts.

A special long weekend of music made in the moment presented by Elastic Arts’ Improvised Music Series

Join us for three days of improvised music from Chicago artists here at Elastic Arts!

A special long weekend of music made in the moment presented by Elastic Arts’ Improvised Music Series

Join us for three days of improvised music from Chicago artists here at Elastic Arts!

A special long weekend of music made in the moment presented by Elastic Arts’ Improvised Music Series

Join us for three days of improvised music from Chicago artists here at Elastic Arts!

Pleiades is excited to team up with Patchbent for a joint jam, bringing our communities together for a night of music and connection. After such a fun mixer at ESS this past February, we’re looking forward to coming together again and seeing what unfolds.

Chicago percussionist and composer Tim Daisy has prepared a new set of scores for two percussionists and piano, which he will present every Monday in April as part of the Homeroom Residency series at Elastic Arts.

Join us this Sunday for a special live taping of an in-the-round performance from Double Helix Quartet. The band finds Fred Jackson Jr., Ishmael Ali, Bill Harris and Avreeayl Ra in compact, highly responsive conversation, as alto saxophone, cello, drums and flute intersect in rhythmic propulsion, textural depth and incisive group invention, yielding a vivid, incisive document of Chicago-led collective improvisation. Music at 7:30pm!

FFFT returns for its first iteration of sound and movement collaborations for 2026 at Elastic Arts!

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. 

April’s CLEAT Series welcomes two Chicago artists presenting solo work, Teerath Majumder and Jaehoon Choi.

Two new configurations bringing modern production-influenced approaches to virtuosic acoustic performance: plunderphonic-acoustic duo Alana Detonators and a trio by Julian Pujol Qualls with special guest Marcos Morales from Miami.