Robbie Hunsinger

Double reed master Robbie Hunsinger returns to the Elastic Arts stage to present a new configuration featuring two mainstays of the contemporary classical scene in Chicago.

8:30 PM : HUNSINGER/CHIN/BEISEL

Robbie Hunsinger - reeds
Dalia Chin - flute
Emily Beisel - reeds

Artist Bios

Robbie Lynn Hunsinger had an illustrious career as a classical oboist before becoming a pioneer in cutting edge installation work and performance. She was an obbligato soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, toured France as an oboe d'amore soloist with The Robert Shaw Institute and toured Europe with the Chicago and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Hunsinger dove into Chicago’s free jazz experience in the 90's. She added Chinese and Indian oboes to her quiver as well as single reeded and invented horns. She studied composition and improvisation with Roscoe Mitchell as a Resident Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and was featured in duets with Evan Parker at Chicago's Empty Bottle Festival and FMP Festival. She has played the Chicago Jazz Festival and World Music Festivals with Tatsu Aoki and performed with Pauline Oliveros, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Kent Kessler, Davu Seru, Avreeayl Ra, Harrison Bankhead and Fred Lomberg-Holm. Her “Trio” recording with Tatsu and legendary Art Ensemble member Joseph Jarman garnered 4 stars from Downbeat Magazine and was featured on several top 10 playlists.

She has been a presenter at IdeaFest Bowling Green, Youngstown University, Eastern Tennessee State, University of Indiana, University of Tennessee, ITP Camp at NYU, the Performing Arts Exchange in Orlando and at Chamber Music America Conference in New York.

Her interactive installations have been exhibited at the Frist Art Museum, Georgia Tech Ferst Center, ISEA Chicago, Chicago's Thomas Blackman Gallery, and Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. She is currently workingon an interactive music installation with Daily Tous Les Jours at a new Nashville park and is co-creator of the VR experience Bought/Broken which has won several awards including a Diverse Gamers Grant from the International Game Developers Association. Her immersive audiovisual experience "Blue-Yellow-Red" at Nashville’s Frist Center for Visual Art won a “Best of Year” acknowledgement from Burnaway Magazine and was written up in Make Magazine. Her trans-media chamber music and installations include robotics, live projections, hacked game controllers and audience participation. Her public artwork “Constellation” was commissioned by Nashville's Metro Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, and "Eclipse," a sound-responsive multimedia chamber work was commission by chatterbird. http://robbiehunsinger.com

Emily Rach Beisel is a Chicago-based improvisor, composer, educator, curator and woodwind specialist. She is known for her visceral performances combining extended instrumental techniques with heavy amplification and timbral effects. Her solo work frequently explores the intersection between avant-garde art music and extreme metal genres such as mathcore, doom, and death metal. As a curator, Beisel seeks to increase the visibility and involvement of women and nonbinary artists in the creative music community. She founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, presenting monthly performances along with a community-based free improvisation jam for femme and nonbinary performers.

Rach Beisel is a member of the contemporary ensemble Fonema Consort, touring most recently in Brazil, Mexico, Minneapolis and New York and premiering works of living composers including James Dillon, Richard Barrett and Julio Estrada. Rach Beisel also works as a woodwind doubler at Chicago-land theaters including the Marriott Theater, Paramount Theater and multiple productions with Chicago's feminist Firebrand Theater Company. As an educator, Rach Beisel maintains a private studio in addition to her teaching positions at Harold Washington College and Oak Park School of Music.

Emily holds her Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208.

Chicago-based Costa Rican flutist Dalia Chin is a founding member of Fonema Consort and the Chicago Composers Orchestra, both of which are dedicated to performing music by living composers. She has been in residence and given performances at institutions including New England Conservatory, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Oberlin Conversarory, Harvard University, the Universidad de Costa Rica, Scripps College, UNAM (Mexico City), the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the 113 Composers Collective and North Central College. She has performed in festival and at venues including Visiones Sonoras (Morela), the Florida Flute Convention, Festival Interfaz (Monterrey), Omaha Under the Radar, the Ear Taxi Festival, the Festival Internacional de Chihuahua, the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo ( Mexico City), the Teatro Sucre (Quito), the City of Chicago’s Pritzker Pavilion, and National Sawdust.

She has performed Pablo Chin’s flute concerto Inside the Shell with the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the Costa Rica Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia, and the University of Wisconsin Whitewater Orchestra. She is the featured soloist on the recently released album Three Burials (New Focus Recordings) which compiles the flute works of composer Pablo Chin. She can also be heard on Fonema Consort’s albums Pasos en otra calle (New Focus Recordings) and FIFTH TABLEAU (Parlour Tapes+).

Dalia works in close collaboration with composers as a soloist, with Fonema Consort and with the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra. Recent commissions and premieres include works by Stratis Minakakis, Pablo Chin, Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Francisco Castillo Trigueros, Bethany Younge, Julio Estrada, Monte Weber, and Tiffany Skidmore.

Dalia earned Post-Masters degree from DePaul University, her Masters in Music Performance at Florida State University, and her Bachelors Degree in Music Performance at the University of Costa Rica. Dalia is currently the program director for the Chicago Metamorphosis Orchestra Program, Director for the New Horizons Flute Choir at the Depaul Community Division. She has a private, Suzuki-certified studio in Chicago.

$15 - Tickets Available at the Door