Ensemble in Process will make its Chicago debut on May 19, 2024, 7.30pm at the Epiphany Center for the Arts with a concert dedicated to works accompanied by visuals on screen, an homage to the art of Hollywood cinema: "Ensemble in Visual Motion" . Allyson Clare and Brian Mark debut their Midwestern collaborative tour with works by Steve Reich, Ursula Kwong-Brown, Ian Dicke, Jonathan Hannau, Missy Mazzoli, Anuj Bhutani, and Brian Mark, with collaborations of Chicago based flautist Robin Meiksins and visual artist Aespyne Alix. Also on this program is a new video installation for a previously composed piece by Jonathan Hannau.

Brian Mark is an award winning composer, pianist and video artist who is based in Brooklyn, NYC, has been hailed as an “attractive and intelligble” artist (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Brian is also the artistic director of “Ensemble in Process,” which has recently been described as “a fluid approach to presenting new music in fresh contexts and juxtapositions” (The New Yorker). Brian has had works performed by ensembles such as the BBC Singers, Chelsea Symphony, members of the London Symphony Orchestra, Atlas Ensemble, Choral Chameleon, Ensemble Signal, the Ligeti quartet, and at festivals including Bang on a Can, London Contemporary Music Festival, June in Buffalo, and Spitalfields. Brian has received grants from New Music USA, New York State Council on the Arts, Grammy Foundation, Jerome Fund for New Music, Mozaik Philanthropy, and ASCAP. He has held residencies with the Chelsea Symphony, i-Park, and the Ucross Foundation. He completed his PhD at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Gary Carpenter.

Allyson Clare is a versatile violinist/violist, chamber musician and soloist based in New York City. As a chamber musician she performed from 2013-2018 as a member of the composer-performer string quartet, Solar String Quartet which recorded and performed live numerous albums with singer-songwriters and composers including Joanna Walfisch, Mario Castro, and Julian Hucq at venues such as BAM Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center primarily in the Jazz and Latin-Jazz genres. In 2020 she was commissioned to play and compose for a solo/duo recital at Merkin Hall with pianist Cullan Bryant, completing and realizing an unfinished manuscript of the Belgian violist Ysaye for solo violin alongside three other works of Belgian composers of his era. She frequently collaborates with her new music duo partner, pianist/composer Brian Mark. Clare holds a Bachelor of Music from The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as well as a Masters of Music from The New England Conservatory of Music. Included among her many teachers are Anne Crowden, Camilla Wicks, and Zaven Mellikian.

Robin Meiksins is a flutist and improviser focused on collaboration with living composers and music performance through the internet. Chicago-based, she uses online media to support and create collaboration, as well as more traditional means of performance. Robin’s biggest creative platform is YouTube. On her channel she is most known for her long term collaborative projects, the first being 365 Days of Flute in 2016-2017. Most recently, Robin completed two projects highlighting improvisation and Chicago beer and breweries. Robin has premiered over 200 works written by living composers. In September 2022, she premiered two works for woodwind trio for Arc Project’s “Three Winds” project. She has performed at the SEAMUS national conference, EMM, SPLICE Institute and Festival, and Oh My Ears festival, among others. Robin holds a masters degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she studied with Kate Lukas and Thomas Robertello. Robin received a Bachelors of Music with Distinction from University of Toronto, having studied with Leslie Newman.

Aespyne Alix (American b. Tulsa, OK 1991 , lives Chicago) has had 3 previous exhibitions in Chicago, Austin SXSW, and South Bend. Her first solo exhibition, Mental Wealth (2018), was held at the South Bend Civil Rights Museum, and garnered the attention of ABC 57, spotlighting the growing mental health concerns in Black and Brown communities. Telling stories through watercolor portraiture. As a woman of color who survived anxiety, depression, and trauma, it is imperative to have those conversations of healing on multiple levels for the artist. “A healing of the mind and heart through images and colors.” Healing While Black (2020) is Alix’s second solo exhibition, it focuses on the Black American experience of attempting to nurture your mind in a systemically oppressive structure. Alix explores emotionalism using bold colors, rhythmic lines, and opaque and solid shapes. . Alix is also currently exhibited in The Bougie Art Galleries, Abstract Art Today online. Aespyne Alix continues to work to integrate healing practices in art and through dialogue in communities of color. Alix currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Alix is a resident of R.A.R.O. Barcelona this summer studying mental health and art as it relates abroad.