Presented by the Johnstone Fund for New Music.

“Unsettling” is a new work for saxophone, clarinet, violin, cello, and electronics, that offers sound and comment on Israel from the perspective of an American Jew. Taking inspiration from contemporary Israeli writers who seek to hold Israel to account for its immense transgressions without devaluing its enormous accomplishments, this piece publicizes my current relationship to the state of Israel, to the American Jews and non-Jews of my community, and to the Jewish members of my family. My primary approach, which has continuously proved most helpful in maintaining a sustainable position, is holding contradiction. 

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, clarinet, sampler

Dan Galat - violin

Kelly Quesada - cello

Commissioned by Chicago chamber string duo The Missing Piece.

Commissioned by Chicago chamber string duo The Missing Piece.

“Unsettling” is a new work for saxophone, clarinet, violin, cello, and electronics, that offers sound and comment on Israel from the perspective of an American Jew. Taking inspiration from contemporary Israeli writers who seek to hold Israel to account for its immense transgressions without devaluing its enormous accomplishments, this piece publicizes my current relationship to the state of Israel, to the American Jews and non-Jews of my community, and to the Jewish members of my family. My primary approach, which has continuously proved most helpful in maintaining a sustainable position, is holding contradiction. 

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, clarinet, sampler

Dan Galat - violin

Kelly Quesada - cello

Commissioned by Chicago chamber string duo The Missing Piece.

“Unsettling” is a new work for saxophone, clarinet, violin, cello, and electronics, that offers sound and comment on Israel from the perspective of an American Jew. Taking inspiration from contemporary Israeli writers who seek to hold Israel to account for its immense transgressions without devaluing its enormous accomplishments, this piece publicizes my current relationship to the state of Israel, to the American Jews and non-Jews of my community, and to the Jewish members of my family. My primary approach, which has continuously proved most helpful in maintaining a sustainable position, is holding contradiction. 

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, clarinet, sampler

Dan Galat - violin

Kelly Quesada - cello

The latest from the compositional world of Matt Ulery

Hunter Diamond - flute, saxophone

Artie Black - clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet

Dustin Laurenzi - saxophone

James Davis - trumpet

Russ Johnson - trumpet

Steve Duncan - trombone

Julius Tucker - piano

Matt Ulery - bass

Jon Deitemeyer - drums

Hunter Diamond - reeds

Mike Reed - drums

Hear our 2021 album Nilia

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Presented by the Green Mill’s Chicago Jazz Composers series:

Freedom and order. Lyricism and abstraction. Sensitivity and raucousness. Lucas Gillan’s Many Blessings, a Chicago-based jazz quartet, finds comfort in the space between these opposites. Gillan, the drummer and bandleader, composes music that hooks listeners with insistent grooves and memorable melodies even while subverting expectations with outré harmonies and freewheeling improvisations.

Quentin Coaxum - trumpet

Hunter Diamond - saxophone

Dan Thatcher - bass

Lucas Gillan - drums

Radio Outernational is a collaborative vehicle for new Chicago groove music. Founded by the Eternals rhythm section (Wayne Montana, Areif Sless-Kitain, and Aaron Shapiro), and rounded out by the flute/saxophone frontline of Hunter Diamond and Kenthaney Redmond.

Opening set from KVL

Hear the single from our forthcoming album

Jay Taylor leads a sound bath meditation experience accompanied by drone-based live sound.

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Appearing at one of Chicago’s most intimate concert spaces.

Set One

Ana Everling - voice

Matt Gold - guitar

Hunter Diamond - drums, woodwinds, voice

Set Two - Matt Ulery’s Sifting Stars

Jim Tashjian - voice, guitar

Matt Gold - voice, guitar, organ

Katie Ernst - voice, bass

Matt Ulery - voice, electric piano

Written and directed by Georgia Bernstein, Night Nurse is a new original film about elder fraud.

I performed much of the original score by Sam Clapp and Steven Jackson, and contributed some composed material for the score.

About the film:

As a series of perverse scam calls unsettles an idyllic retirement community, a starry-eyed nurse becomes entangled with her mysterious patient.

Waiting to begin her first-day orientation for her new night nurse job at a luxury retirement community, Eleni notices an energy in the geriatric exercise pool. There’s something unexpected about how the bodies are coming together in the water, the mental energy, the tone of conversation, and the way her new client turns around, out of the blue, to stare straight into her eyes.

Debut director Georgia Bernstein’s atmospheric, psychosexual thriller palpably explores how emotion, deception, and sexual obsession can come together in the liminal space between caregivers and the people they care for. Night Nurse is a bold and visually luscious film that delivers a tense, clever ride that keeps the viewer in constant precarious balance, guessing what is madness and what is a dangerously scintillating manipulation.

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Ana Everling is a vocalist and storyteller whose artistry bridges the rich traditions of Romanian folklore from Moldova with bold originality and a love for improvisation. Drawing inspiration from her heritage, Ana creates music that is entirely her own—an innovative fusion of ancestral echoes and modern expression. Her performances invite listeners into an immersive experience where every moment feels both timeless and new.

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A new collaborative trio with James Elkington and Mike Reed playing original music.

Opening set from beloved and telepathic Chicago creative music trio Twin Talk

Presented as part of the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s JazzCity Series and Michael Nearpass.

Our annual performance of this charming and cheeky interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s timeless classic.

Nearpass has assembled an all star bag band of Chicago jazz musicians which will perform the suite in its entirety, along with historical commentary along the way.

Presented as part of the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s JazzCity Series and Michael Nearpass.

Our annual performance of this charming and cheeky interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s timeless classic.

Nearpass has assembled an all star bag band of Chicago jazz musicians which will perform the suite in its entirety, along with historical commentary along the way.

Performing this album song for song with an all star line-up of Chicago creative musicians:

Hunter Diamond : flute

Dave Rempis : alto saxophone

Joshua Abrams : bass

Christian Dillingham : bass

Mike Reed : drums

Presented by the Evanston In-School Music Association (EISMA)

Hear and experience Romanian Folklore from Moldova with Ana Everling, a vocalist and storyteller whose artistry bridges the rich traditions of Romania with bold originality and a love of improvisation. This event is part of the Evanston In-School Music Association’s Cultural Concert Series, which brings top musicians from Chicago and beyond to public spaces for free performances that celebrate musical excellence and community connection. No advanced registration required. 

New music from our most recent release Furniture of the Mind Rearranging in addition to unrecorded pieces in preparation for documentation.

Second set from Minneapolis’ Atlantis Quartet

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Radio Outernational is a collaborative vehicle for new original Chicago groove music. Founded by The Eternals rhythm section (Wayne Montana, Areif Sless-Kitain, and Aaron Shapiro), and rounded out by the flute/saxophone frontline of Hunter Diamond and Kenthaney Redmond.

Headliner: El Khat

Moldovan folk singer Ana Everling leads us through an afternoon of French and folk music in conjunction with the Lycée de Chicago’s fall market

Commissioned by Chicago chamber string duo The Missing Piece.

“Unsettling” is a new work for saxophone, clarinet, violin, cello, and electronics, that offers sound and comment on Israel from the perspective of an American Jew. Taking inspiration from contemporary Israeli writers who seek to hold Israel to account for its immense transgressions without devaluing its enormous accomplishments, this piece publicizes my current relationship to the state of Israel, to the American Jews and non-Jews of my community, and to the Jewish members of my family. My primary approach, which has continuously proved most helpful in maintaining a sustainable position, is holding contradiction. 

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, clarinet, sampler

Dan Galat - violin

Kelly Quesada - cello

This will be the second record cycle of Hannah’s that I’ve contributed to. Her new album Nested in Tangles releases this fall on Fire Talk Records.

Hannah Frances (b. 1997) is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, dancer and poet. Her work is centered at the intersection of grief and nature, exploring the pathways of healing through cathartic process and land connection.

NPR's Ann Powers calls Frances a stunning vocalist and songwriter, making monumental and mythic freak folk, and she was awarded Pitchfork's Best New Music for her triumphant new album Keeper of the Shepherd, as well as nods for Best Albums of 2024 from Pitchfork, Paste Magazine, and Bandcamp, and a full feature in the Chicago Tribune.

A classically trained vocalist and self-taught guitarist with virtuosic dynamism, there is no singular way Hannah grips us with her complex open-tuned guitar work and storytelling. Through profoundly cutting lyricism, percussive polyrhythmic fingerpicking, and a prodigious voice, Frances’ unorthodox sound melds avant-folk, progressive rock, and jazz.

A persistent troubadour, Frances lives in Vermont with roots in Chicago, though she is most often touring internationally and nationally, opening for artists such as Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes, Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Weather Station, Hiss Golden Messenger, Billie Marten, Whitney, and Damien Jurado, among others. Whether performing as a solo act or leading her full seven-piece ensemble, her mythology spellbinds with an insistent gravity.

GRAY is thrilled to announce OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY, a solo exhibition by Theaster Gates. The exhibition opens at GRAY Chicago with a public reception for the artist on Thursday, October 16, and will be on view through December 20, 2025.

In OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY, Gates brings together a new series of tar paintings, sculpture, and installation to tell an allegory of the city in decay and the potential contained within its ruins. The exhibition’s title comes from a song by Chicago musician and poet Marvin Tate, in which the City, personified as a character, has cleaned up its act and attempts to lure its residents back from the suburbs.

Oh, you’ve got to come back to the city, the place where you belong
Oh, you’ve got to come back to the city, the place where you were born
Oh, you’ve got to come back to the city, the city of dreams
—Marvin Tate, “City Promenade”

A new exploratory woodwinds/guitar/electronics duo with Elijah McLaughlin.

Second set from Jon Camp.

Ana Everling is a vocalist and storyteller whose artistry bridges the rich traditions of Romanian folklore from Moldova with bold originality and a love for improvisation. Drawing inspiration from her heritage, Ana creates music that is entirely her own—an innovative fusion of ancestral echoes and modern expression. Her performances invite listeners into an immersive experience where every moment feels both timeless and new.

This performance is presented as part of Lincoln Center’s Festival of Firsts.

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presented as part of the Sundays on State festival.

Recalling the iconic sounds of King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Lil Hardin, and Duke Ellington, Pollinator is abounding in the infectious grooves and spontaneous group improvisation which Ulery notes are two of the most exciting aspects of the jazz artform to have survived and flourished within the music over the course of the past 100 years.  The composer remarks, “With respect, we’d like to present this art project with joy, humor, and sincerity in celebration of the innovators that helped give birth to this revolutionary age of American art music.”

Mike Reed’s The Big Gig assembles an animated crew of Chicago’s improvisors to present some of the music we love most - from The Netherlands to South Africa to outer space, the ensemble highlights the joyous side of some of the 20th century’s beloved composers and bandleaders.

Greg Ward - alto saxophone

Hunter Diamond - tenor saxophone

Keefe Jackson - tenor and baritone saxophones

Cole DeGenova - piano, organ

Christian Dillingham - bass

Mike Reed Drums

This performance is in support of Theaster Gates’ current exhibition Unto Thee

Radio Outernational is a collaborative vehicle for new Chicago groove music. Founded by the Eternals rhythm section (Wayne Montana, Areif Sless-Kitain, and Aaron Shapiro), and rounded out by the flute/saxophone frontline of Hunter Diamond and Kenthaney Redmond.

Opening set from Leroy Bach & Dan Bitney

Flesh of Fruit is the debut collaboration from Chicago sound artists Hunter Diamond and Allen Moore. Free improvisation and experimental electronics engage reflective nostalgia, creating a sound collage equally at home in a free jazz club, art gallery, or underground noise show.