DISCOVERY
Our annual DISCOVERY concert is designed to bring the newest ~Nois ~discoveries~ to you. From composers, to pieces, to unique collaborations we’ve found… it’s a chance for us to celebrate the year in our favorite backyard of Chicago. This year’s DISCOVERY marks a final note before our biggest year yet — season 10!
JUNE 12, 2026 | 6:30PM | DEPAUL UNIVERSITY’S ALLEN RECITAL HALL
CONCERT PROGRAM
Break Away (2013/2026)
by Jessie Montgomery (arr. ~Nois/Montgomery)“Break Away was written for PUBLIQuartet (PQ) in 2013 for a premiere at the Music of Now festival at Symphony Space. The piece was born out of a series of improvisations that PQ was working on while in residency at the Banff Centre where we formed a suite of short pieces riffing on several different styles of music from hip-hop to electronica to twentieth-century modern.
The score calls on the quartet to both play with and “break away” from the score at various points, thereby attempting a seamless dialogue between the written score and the whims of the quartet, in which the piece takes on further transformation at each performance.”
— Montgomery
At the Unicorn (2026)
by Delaney Baeza [*2026 ~Nois YCF Winner]“Throughout workshopping this piece, I was really drawn to the use of texture. The whole piece actually developed from this one moment at the beginning, a smorzato flutter-tongue in the soprano. I wanted to create something that was satisfying but also new. I chose sounds that emphasized an airy and clicky timbre to create that satisfying feeling. I ended up naming my piece At The Unicorn after a place in Evanston that I grew up around and feels meaningful to me. Being in Evanston for these workshops with ~Nois has been a really valuable experience, and I wanted the name of my piece to connect to the place where this music came together.”
— Baeza
Lands from above and tosses you around. (2026)
by Gloria Kravchenko [*2026 ~Nois YCF Winner]“This work illustrates the physical gesture of a flying projectile hitting its target and exploding.
We watch wars from a distance. From behind screens and from news stories. Violence is shown to us alarmingly often, becoming a passive and unremarkable aspect of our mental intake. However, we rarely or never experience it first hand, as violence becomes a remote and indirect sort of force. Meat is bought off the shelves of grocery stores without us ever having to see how it got there, and military drones are controlled by long-distance operators as we enter the age of drone warfare. We rarely or even never experience the grotesque and the starkly carnal, but reap its consequences every day.
This is an attempt to capture the elusive and purely made-up gesture that comes to mind when I hear of bombs and explosions. There are two distinct textures that make up this work: one of the projectile in its airborne arc of motion and another of the physical impact of its landing. This second texture imagines reverberation that is sent through the body, echoing within the confines of heartbeats that skip at changing meters.
This image is far from the truth. It is pieced together from fragments and imagined from a distance. Yet it is the only way I know to think about it: a distant arc, an impact, and an echo that lingers long after the sound is gone.”
— Kravchenko
Ordinary Time (2026)
by Nico Muhly“Ordinary Time is split into five movements. Each one explores different ways of manipulating rhythms across the four instruments. The first movement has the players in near-canons, never perfect but seldom in unison. The second movement is a smudged hymn-tune, where the steady rhythm of the harmony is undermined by unstable glissandi. The third movement splits the ensemble into two duos playing primarily in unison, a conceit which gradually unravels with a sense of vague menace, whereas the fourth movement is almost all menace: a kind of joyful perpetual-motion machine. The piece ends with a movement in which all the previous techniques compete in ways designed to sound simultaneously highly organized and chaotic. Ordinary Time refers to the seasons in the church year which fall outside the well-known seasons (i.e. Lent or Advent), and are periods of the year with their own small internal procedures and rituals.”
— Muhly
GAME THEORY (2026)
by Shawn Okpebholo“Commissioned by the ~Nois Quartet, GAME THEORY imagines music as a lively experiment in strategy and dialogue. It begins with fragments of a fugue–ideas circling and testing the waters–before launching into a full fugue, or rather my modern take on one, that propels the work forward. A reflective middle section provides a bold, spacious contrast, before the energy gathers again, like players returning to the table with fresh tactics.
At its core, the piece is about interplay, reflecting the principles of game theory itself–where outcomes arise not from one voice alone, but from the strategies and responses of all players together. Voices collide, overlap, interrupt, and spar in spirited conversation. Sometimes playful, sometimes pointed, the quartet becomes a microcosm of community–where tension and harmony, rhythm and color, competition and cooperation converge in sound.”
— Okpebholo
THE PERFORMERS
Take your preconceptions of ‘noise’ and toss them out the window. Equal parts “fiendishly good and fiendishly goofy” (Chicago Tribune), ~Nois Quartet is a “prolific, charismatic young ensemble that is swiftly becoming the American saxophone quartet du jour” (Musical America). Founded in 2016, the Chicago-based ensemble is dedicated to championing new music for saxophone and building community through innovative, inclusive, and exceptional musical experiences.
Their 200+ performances have spanned 28 states, including invitations to perform at some of the top festivals, concert series, and academic institutions in the nation. At the core of ~Nois’ ethos is a fierce dedication to the commissioning of living composers, leading to over 120 world-premieres to date.
~Nois is Julian Velasco (he/him), Natalia Warthen (she/her), Jordan Lulloff (he/him), and János Csontos (he/him). For more information, please visit www.noisquartet.org.
2026 ~NOIS CREATIVE FELLOWS
Delaney Baeza
Delaney Baeza is an 18-year-old composer and pianist based in Chicago. She is currently studying music at The Chicago Academy for the Arts, where she has trained in classical, jazz, and contemporary styles over the past four years. Her compositional background reflects her classical and jazz piano roots as well as her strong interest in experimental music. Recent compositions of hers explore texture through shapes and other visual structures that serve as a foundation for her music, and she also experiments translating medieval works into modern abstract music. Over the past year, she has expanded her work through recording projects and collaborations with ensembles around Chicago, including a recent recording project with Fonema Consort. She is currently part of the CSO Young Composers Initiative and has received several accolades, including an encouragement award from the Hearing In Color Young Composers Residency. Delaney continues to develop her voice as a composer by experimenting with new forms and collaborating with performers around Chicago.
Gloria Kravchenko
Gloria Kravchenko is a composer who approaches sound through a visual lens, creating experimental work informed by her training in the visual arts. Her work has been featured in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Young Composers Initiative (2025), and she has participated in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras Composition Seminar for three consecutive years. A senior at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, Gloria is also a violinist with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, she maintains an active practice in figure skating alongside her musical work.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Donnelley Foundation, the DEW Foundation, the Amphion Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. Nico Muhly’s Ordinary Time was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, Library of Congress. Shawn Okpebholo's GAME THEORY was commissioned by the ~Nois New Works Fund.
~Nois' 2026 Young Creators Fellowship was made possible by support from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation, and the ~Nois Young Creators Fund.
SUPPORT ~NOIS’ 10TH ANNIVERSARY!
As a 21st century artist-led organization, we rely heavily on individual contributions to support our operations on and off the stage. Your generosity enables us to continue our mission of innovative programming, high-caliber performances, educational programs and presenting the fiercest music of recent decades. Now more than ever, we ask for your support to help the future of contemporary music.
SAVE THE DATE!
SAVE THE DATE!
CURIOSITY
October 7, 2026 | Constellation Chicago
World premieres by Peyton Nelesen, Paul Novak, Elijah Daniel Smith, & Alex Temple. Join us for the season opener of our 10th birthday!