The Performing Media Festival presents a performance of TETHER by Kari Watson, Luana Borges, and Kristen Bernier on March 14 in the festivals final concert.
Western Michigan University - Bullock Series recital
7:30 PM 8:30 PM
Dalton Center Recital Hall (map)
University of Chicago Tea Time Concert - Fulton Recital Hall
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Fulton Hall
Heather Roche premiers a new work for Bass Clarinet on the Critical Sounds Festival & Conference at the Greenline Center for the Arts in Hyde Park.
Three Places for String Quartet is performed by Quatuor Mémoire at the Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur in Montreal, Québec.
Kari Watson premieres Fuse, a new solo performance for analog modular synthesizers and programmed drum machines. The piece plays with clock function and tempo ramps, moving between analog and digital environments as Watson shapes the sound in real time.
Fuse engages a quadraphonic speaker array in tandem with a spatial audio sculpture of unhoused speaker cones distributed through the room. A custom synth garment—made in collaboration with visual artist and designer Av Grannan—houses patch cables and an XLR snake that tie Watson’s body into the setup. Modular instruments sit atop custom ceramic tables made with visual artist and ceramicist Paige Schlosser, designed so cables can be woven in and around the surfaces.
Watson takes theorist Donna Haraway’s cyborg as an origin point for the project: a figure of synthesis and hybridity, where humans and machines are enmeshed and the boundaries between body and environment are continually unsettled. Fuse makes that unsettled boundary audible, asking where the performer ends and the surrounding system begins.
for more information: https://lampo.org/archive/kari-watson-2026/
Classical Chamber series at The Block
7:30 PM 9:00 PM
The Block
Experience the variety of sound that a string quartet can make! Varo String Quartet will perform a mix of music, from the innovative works of living composers to classical masterpieces at Muskegon’s The Block.
Kari Watson and Sam Wenc play duo at the Kiosk gallery on March 7th in the afternoon.
Jen Torrence gives the US Premier of For Jen Torrence on the opening night of Chicago’s Frequency Festival.
OSCILLATIONS for large ensemble, modular synthesizer, and electronics, presented through the Mannes School of Music and the New School by the Mannes American Composers Ensemble with Conductor David Fulmer, with Watson on synthesizer.
A public in progress sharing of the Watson and Middleton’s new collaboration, The Masks We Wear.
a week long residency at Iklectik Art Lab’s new space, culminating in a concert on January 30th.
Kari and Katinka play Studio DB in celebration of their record VISTAS.
Kari Watson and Ethan Braun play duo at RICHTEN25 in Berlin, DE.
Kari Watson & Katinka Kleijn play at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury as part of Watson & Kleijn UK/EU tour.
Kari and Katinka duo splitting a bill at Khimaira w/ Maya Bennardo, Etienne Nillesen and Kristofer Svensson.
Duo show with cellist Laurence Gaudreau at Parlour, Amsterdam.
Kari plays a duo with accordionist Tizia Zimmerman gig at WIM, Werkstatt für improvisierte Musik Zürich, at 8pm.
MINU_festival_for_expanded_music is a Copenhagen-based festival presenting art on the borders of experimental music and other media. It is a space for oscillating between extremes and charting relationships between art, technology, and contemporary culture. With a curatorial focus on the events as holistic experiences, MINU is an initiative for expanding the definition of music through presenting the unmusical as musical.
On November 7th at 730pm, the International Museum of Surgical Science will present RESONANT CHAMBERS, a night of audio visual performances by Kari Watson & Lou Mallozzi (Duo), Kelley Sheehan, and David Bird.
On Wednesday October 15th at Upstairs, solo sets by Kari Watson, Jason Calhoun, Misses and Sam Wenc. Show at 8pm, 21+.
Kari Watson plays solo set on a bill with Zach Layton, Ryan Sawyer and Alex Waterman at the Avalon Lounge
Kari Watson and Katinka Kleijn duo play at the Hungry Brain for International Anthem’s 11 x 11 series.
Exquisite Corpse, a surreal full length puppet show meditating on death, shadow, and transformation - set to the lush sonic landscape of Kari Watson’s debut album enclosures.
Performed by Sky Bernard, Jenn Eisner, Meg Fahy, and Av Grannan, this piece invites you to witness the dreamlike unraveling of one life into something stranger, wilder, and more connected.
Catch it at Avrom Farm Party. One night only! Tickets moving fast!
Modular Synthesizer and Percussion Duo
Organizer: Kari Watson & Romane Bouffioux
Percussionist Romane Bouffioux & Composer/Performer Kari Watson play a duo set from 15:30-16:30 in OS Showcase
Kari Watson: twinning für zwei Violinen und LED-Lichter (2025)
Kari Watson: For Jen Torrence für Percussion, Elektronik und Video (2024/25)
Kelley Sheehan: Neues Werk für Percussion solo / New Work for Percussion solo (2025)
Uraufführung / World Premiere
Sarah Saviet (Violine / Violin)
Maya Bennardo (Violine / Violin)
Jennifer Torrence (Percussion)
Kari Watson (Electronic Devices)
Luana Borges (Video)
Tickets: https://ztix.de/hp/events/26883/info
July 21st, 2025 | 1:00 PM | Goodson Chapel-Recital Hall
Axiom Brass plays Alloys on a program at the DC Trombone Workshop
Singing in Kate In’s CLEAT choir piece Drop Lift Fly
BIM BOM STUDIOS - 5/28
BOND CHAPEL - 5/29 w/ Zach Good & Zach Moore
LIVE STUDIO SESSION AT MIDNIGHT TEA - 5/30
Yarn Wire premiers SYNTHETICS - a commission for their currents series at Roulette in NYC on May 21st, 2025.
FLORASONICS installation opening event at the Lincoln Park Conservatory of Laura Ortman’s new work, spatialized in collaboration with Kari Watson via Experimental Sound Studio.
Solo Modular Synth Set at Cutelab NYC
8pm DM for address in Brooklyn, NY.
NOTAFLOF
Sunday, April 13th at 2pm, Kari Watson and Laura Ortman will discuss working collaboratively within the realm of spatial audio at ESS, with examples pulled from Laura’s upcoming Florasonics program at the Lincoln Park Conservatory.
Solo set at Constellation in Chicago, opening for Jules Reidy at Constellation, Chicago.
Tickets: https://wl.seetickets.us/event/jules-reidy-with-kari-watson/628898?afflky=ConstellationChicago
Doors: 8:00PM | Show: 8:30PM
Altarpiece H. af K. by Eric Wubbels featuring Katherine Young, Dana Jessen, and Ben Roidl-Ward, Kari Watson
Altarpiece H. af K. is a study in the acoustics of complex sounds. Drawing inspiration from the radically abstract visual language of the visionary early 20th-century Swedish artist Hilma af Klint, the piece unfolds in a 25-minute wave of saturated resonance.
The supergroup of bassoonists Katherine Young, Dana Jessen, and Ben Roidl-Ward made their trio debut in May 2023 at Chicago’s Elastic Arts with an original evening-length work called Tendrils. Each considered a pioneer in the field of contemporary, experimental, electronic, and improvised music, their collective artistic output has significantly expanded the range and sonic possibilities of their instrument. Collectively, they have presented hundreds of performances and world premieres at international music festivals and concert series spanning prestigious concert halls to local community art spaces. Members of the ensemble hold teaching positions at Emory University, Oberlin College and Conservatory, and the University of Illinois.
There will be an opening set from composer and and synthesist Kari Watson.
The Grossman Ensemble Premiers OSCILLATIONS with Kari Watson performing synthesizers and electronics on the premier of their work for Grossman Ensemble under conductor David Fulmer.
