Nicole Mitchell, creative flutist/composer/poet
Nicole Mitchell will take the stage backed by a group of local jazz musician favorites to present an evening of exciting new music. Nicole Mitchell's career as an award-winning flutist, composer, recording artist, and educator has left a lasting mark on the world of jazz and beyond. Her innovative approach to music, combined with her dedication to social justice and education, have established her as a leading figure in contemporary creative music.
Tickets
$10-$20
(Free w/WashU Student ID)
Co-sponsors: WashU African and African-American Studies, Center for the Humanities, Department of English, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, and The Center for the Literary Arts
Nicole Mitchell Sextet
Ben Dicke, drums
Paul Steinbeck, bass
Daniel Herrera, piano
Dustin Shrum, trumpet
Kendrick Smith, saxophones
Nicole M. Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. She is perhaps best known for her work as a flutist, having developed a unique improvisational language and having been repeatedly awarded “Top Flutist of the Year” by Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association (2010-2022). Mitchell initially emerged from Chicago’s innovative music scene in the late 90s. She started with Maia and Shanta Nurullah in Samana (the AACM's first all-woman ensemble) and as a member of the David Boykin EXPANSE. Her music celebrates contemporary African American culture. She is the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Sonic Projections and Ice Crystal, and she composes for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size, while incorporating improvisation and a wide aesthetic expression. The former first woman president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Mitchell celebrates endless possibility by “creating visionary worlds through music that bridge the familiar with the unknown.” Some of her newest work with Black Earth Ensemble explores intercultural collaborations; Bamako*Chicago, featuring Malian kora master, Ballake Sissoko and Mandorla Awakening with Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi) and Tatsu Aoki (taiko, bass, shamisen). As a composer, Mitchell has been commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago, the Stone, the French American Jazz Exchange, Chamber Music America (New Works), the Chicago Jazz Festival, ICE, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Mitchell has performed with creative music luminaries including Craig Taborn, Roscoe Mitchell, Joelle Leandre, Anthony Braxton, Geri Allen, George Lewis, Mark Dresser, Steve Coleman, Anthony Davis, Myra Melford, Bill Dixon, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ed Wilkerson, Rob Mazurek, and Billy Childs, and Hamid Drake. She is a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award (2011), the Chicago 3Arts Award (2011), the Doris Duke Artist Award (2012) and the United States Artist Award (2020). Mitchell is a Professor of Music at the University of Virginia, and previously taught at the University of California Irvine and the University of Pittsburgh.
Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
