8:30pm.
You can watch the livestream HERE.
If you watch the livestream, please support the artists by purchasing a livestream ticket.
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Complete Line up:
~Nois Quartet
Julian Velasco - Soprano Saxophone
Natalia Warthen - Alto Saxophone
Jordan Lulloff - Tenor Saxophone
János Csontos - Bari Saxophone
Works by:
Sam Alvarez*
Jonathan Hannau
Elijah Daniel Smith*
Peyton Nelesen*
Paul Novak*
*indicates world premiere
Now entering its tenth year, Curiosity is ~Nois annual concert series dedicated to featuring new (and new-ish) music featuring artists with ties to Chicago. What might you hear at a Curiosity show? An hour of drone music? Electronics with weird alien noises? A bad joke told from the stage purely to stall for time while Jordan tries to find a replacement reed because he broke his other one slap tonguing for five minutes straight on the first piece of the program? Well, probably a mix of all three. Whatever it is we play, we invite the listener to get curious with us as we explore the here and now with the groundbreaking new music coming out of the city we call home.
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). ~Nois Quartet has presented over 200 performances in their 10 years, and has “continued to legitimize the saxophone quartet as a premier ensemble formation for classical music” (Brutal New Music) The group’s recorded output boasts a wide variety of genres across more than a dozen albums. Most recently, the group released their genre-bending third album, “What is ~Nois”, on the label New Amsterdam Records, which was featured on NPR’s “Best Albums out April 10th, 2026”, heralded as “utterly gorgeous and gripping” (Cast The Dice), and rated “four stars” (BBC Music Magazine).
photo credit: Nick Zoulek
