mycelium new music

photo by Aline Stern

Mycelium New Music is a Chicago-based ensemble committed to creating imaginative, multidisciplinary performances of contemporary music that showcase diverse emerging voices. Praised for "cultivating a network of composers and performers with cheeky flair" (WBEZ), Mycelium collaborates with composers, performers, and artists, and curates impactful and adventurous programming in Chicago’s artistic ecosystem and beyond.

Highlights of Mycelium’s 26/27 season in Chicago include a collaboration with composer-vocalist Kate Soper, a performance and bird walk presented in collaboration with Chicago Ornithological Society, the US premiere by Enno Poppe’s Laub paired with live projection, and the premieres of the winning works from our Call for Spores. Each year, the ensemble’s rhizome project brings three emerging composers to Chicago to workshop, perform, and record a recent work for sextet, and its s.p.o.r.e. series presents immersive, multimedia-driven performances of chamber music across the city. Launched in 2024, Mycelium’s past seasons have included performances alongside pioneering composer-performer Pamela Z, composer and avant-folk vocalist Annika Socolofsky, and of new and recent works by rising composers Christian Quinones, Ania Vu, Seare Farhat, Sofia Ouyang, Bobby Ge, and many more. 

The ensemble takes its name from the mycelial network, the underground web of fungi that symbiotically connects an entire forest.