Mind on Fire partners with Pique Collective to premiere a new work by Jeremy Lyons: PROCEDURES (for flute, guitar, cello, and video)

Procedures is a composition in three movements. Procedures change subtly over time through aural processes. Procedures create an environment that can feel calming or even hypnotic. But only after time do you realize how the Procedures have changed.

Video artists Sara Dittrich and SV Randall have created a video to accompany the Procedures.

Black Cherry Puppet Theatre supports Procedures with mysterious processes of their own devising.

featuring new experimental films by Baltimore locals

Doors 7:30 / Show 8:30 PM

GREG HATEM

TIM SHEARER

SYDNEY SMITH

BRAN WINKLER

‘ALFIE MARSLAND

BRENTON LIM

JIMMY JOE ROCHE

WILL SCHORRE

LUS QUERAL

ALLEN MOORE

CAT MORRIS JONES

MATT SULLIVAN

AMY ODEN

MATT BARRY

CHARLIE KNOTT

Presented by Baltimore Faerie Festival!

Ticket Link

Come to dance, come to laugh, come to mingle with those of other races: Elves, Mermaids, Faeries, Gnomes... Goblins, Orcs and Trolls are all invited... to dance into the night. Shop our craft vendors!

Dance on the original wooden floors, to THREE live dance bands! 2 Fairy Courts. We have just added a few Family Tickets at a GREATLY reduced price, good from 6-830pm, so you can bring your kids out to meet the faeries and then get them into bed before we can take them back to faerieland at the end of the evening....

a night of percussion ensemble music

Matchstick Percussion is a Maryland-based percussion quartet dedicated to new music, equity, and expanding the percussion repertoire. Through performance and education, they advocate for underrepresented artists and greater accessibility in the field.

Over the past seven years, Matchstick Percussion has presented more than 40 concerts at venues such as the Phillips Collection, the Kennedy Center, the Hirschhorn Museum, numerous universities across the east coast, and internationally at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Matchstick has collaborated with groups including 21st Century Consort, Sō Percussion, Open Music, and Folx Percussion. Dedicated to commissioning and recording new works, they have commissioned, premiered, and recorded over a dozen new pieces for percussion quartet.

Matchstick Percussion’s newest project is a series of commissions titled Strike Anywhere. This initiative aims to expand the accessibility of the percussion repertoire by restricting composers to write for portable, common instruments and found objects. Through this new repertoire, they hope to reach new audiences by removing the limiting factors in choice of venue, as well as inspire audiences and expand their idea of what percussion music can be.

In addition to performing, Matchstick Percussion regularly provides masterclasses to students of all ages from elementary schools to universities. These events are intended to expose students to a wide variety of percussion chamber music and provide them an opportunity to learn more about music entrepreneurship, chamber music skills, and transitioning to the professional world

Matchstick Percussion proudly endorses Yamaha, Zildjian, Vic Firth, and Black Swamp

Percussion products. matchstickpercussion.com

An evening of contemporary Indian classical music

Piano + mrudangam

Utsav Lal, often known as ‘Raga Pianist’ has set a precedent with his innovative handling of Indian Classical music.  the world with his innovative handling of Indian Classical Music on a Western instrument, The Irish Times describes Utsav Lal as “a fleet-fingered performer whose best moments can be both highly evocative and dazzling.” Lal’s ground-breaking work has garnered an impressive career spanning two decades, with solo performances at world famous venues like Carnegie Hall (New York), Southbank Centre (London), Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Steinway Hall (New York), Asia Society (Hong Kong),  Arts Center (Melbourne).

Treading the careful line between an ancient tradition and the innate desire for innovation with utmost respect, Lal’s music is acclaimed for its sincerity, depth and powerful intensity. With unfailing clarity of technique and  rhythmic virtuosity, his work is deeply influenced by Dhrupad and  gains inspiration from a vast array of sources such as The Necks, Thelonious Monk, Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou and Cecil Taylor. Lal has challenged commonly understood ways of improvisation to develop his own unique voice for the piano, taking stage at leading festivals including Novara Jazz (Italy), San Francisco Silent Film (USA) AsiaTopa Festival (Australia), Masters of Tradition (Ireland).

Endorsed as Young Steinway Artist, TiE Aspire Young Indian Achiever,, Yamaha Jazz Scholar, Lal has been recognized for his extensive collaborative work with Irish, Scottish, Jazz and Experimental artists including leading names like  Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill, Winifred Horan, Australian Contemporary Circus Theatre CIRCA, Talvin Singh, George Brooks, Rajna Swaminathan. Lal has 7 solo record releases which include a historic world’s first album on the microtonal “Fluid Piano” (2016). Lal holds a Masters in Contemporary Improvisation (New England Conservatory of Music), Bachelor’s in Jazz (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland)  and is a disciple of  Dhrupad vocalist Ustad F. Wasifuddin Dagar.

Rajna Swaminathan is an acclaimed mrudangam artist, composer, and scholar. Rajna has been described as “a vital new voice” (Pop Matters), creating “music of gravity and rigor… yet its overall effect is accessible and uplifting” (Wall Street Journal). In her music and research, she explores the undercurrents of rhythmic experience and emergent textures in collective improvisation.

One of only a few women who play the mrudangam professionally, Rajna received her creative foundation on the instrument from her father, P.K. Swaminathan, and mrudangam legend Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. Through extensive experience performing in the Karnatik music and bharatanatyam scenes, an affinity for various streams of South Asian film/popular music, and deep collaborative work in New York's jazz and creative music scene, Rajna developed experimental approaches to improvising on the mrudangam, piano, and voice. 

Rajna’s orientation as an improviser-composer blossomed through a search for resonance and fluidity among musical forms and aesthetic worlds. Her ensemble RAJAS has been a prominent medium for her expansive compositions, which involve a lattice of rhythmic, textural, and modal approaches. The ensemble's sound has been described as “unlike any other on the scene” (New York Times), and their debut album, Of Agency and Abstraction (Biophilia Records, 2019), received much critical acclaim. 

Free!

Moving with community – ambient music – family-friendly

Imagine you’re making laps around a mall.

But instead you’re in 2640 Space (both rooms open).

Come be in community and shake off the Winter blues.

Interested in 2640 Space for your event? Come to our open house for snacks and a chance to chat with our collective members.

A night of electro-acoustic instrumental music.

Bruce Willen & Sarah Manley - harmonium, synthesizers, and trombone

Melissa Hyatt Foss - handcrafted flutes, percussion, and electronics

Carillon - synthesizers, tape loops, and bells

XOR - modular synthesis

Bring a bell, shaker, or peaceful noisemaker. You will be invited to play along at the beginning and end of the performance.

Bring a blanket, mat, or cushion if you’d like to sit on the floor. Chairs will also be provided.

7:00 PM doors

7:30 PM music

Free!

The Johns Hopkins Film and Media Studies Program is proud to present a collection of works by Phil Solomon and Robert Schaller. Phil Solomon was a prolific American experimental filmmaker who collaborated with Stan Brakhage on several films, studied under Ken Jacobs and taught a generation of filmmakers at the famed University of Colorado Film School. Robert Schaller is a filmmaker, chemist, and founder of the Handmade Film Institute. His films are fundamentally concerned with two essential aspects of filmmaking: the materiality of the film medium itself, and the creation of "visual music" through applying the formal structures of music to filmmaking. Both artists share a deep commitment to the role of the material and expansion of the understanding of vision to encompass not just the eyes, but the whole being; the bodies and spirits that we are. This event is free and open to the public.  

Kimberly Alidio

Stacy Szymaszek

James Loop

Casper Lee

Will Fesperman

Daniel Kuriakose

& Tyhe Cooper

… read their poems

Majestic Behavior productions presents a night of locally-made independent film.

Food/drink/popcorn with entry

Films start at 6:30 PM

AWP offsite reading

readings by:

I.S. Jones

Bobby Elliott

Erin L. McCoy

Mitchell Jacobs

Adedayo Agarau

Matthew Tuckner

Xuela Zhang

Bernardo Wade

Isabella DeSendi

Gbenga Adesina

James Ciano

Leigh Lucas

Asa Drake

Ticket link

A ballet inspired by the Italo Calvino novel

F. L.
Austin Larkin
Air Wire (Will Schorre/Mike Kuhl)

2/27
Doors: 8:30pm
Music: 9pm
$15-20

F. L. is a musician and sound artist living in Vienna/Austria. He is currently focusing on live performances that incorporate real-time audio synthesis, utilizing digital physical modeling techniques and feedback networks.

Austin Larkin is a composer from Seattle now based in New Haven. He primarily works with violin, flute, bells and sirens. His performance and practice is informed by research into dimensions of vibrating bodies.

Air Wire is the musical collaboration of Will Schorre and Mike Kuhl. Will Schorre is a designer and synthesist based in Baltimore. Drummer, recording artist and educator Mike Kuhl hails from the musically diverse city of Baltimore. Kuhl has dedicated his life to the world of drumming and sound, opening up his artistry to a multitude of projects. As a leader and co-leader, Kuhl can be heard with his groups KraL (Out of Your Head Records), Mike Kuhl Solo (Shineyboy Press,) Skullcap (Cuneiform) and The Furniture (Spanish Prayer).

Love as Transgression

Suggested $10-$20

Potluck and zine-making at 6:30pm

Show at 8pm

A NIGHT IN 4 PARTS:

1. Make Zine with Artists Against Apartheid

2. Sing together with Ama Chandra

3. Watch:

Erik Spangler (sound)

Jess Keyes (customized instruments)

Villager (voice, sound, movement) with guest curation by Talbolt Johnson

4. Open Mic

Doors 7:30, Music 8 PM - $10-20 sliding scale

celebrating the release of an album of new compositions by James David Young (Shiny Boy Press)

Featuring:

Peter Kibbe, cello

Anna K. Crooks, poetry

Maddy Strong & James Young, flute & bassoon

Ticket Link

LED flow night! All non-fire flow props accepted. It's cold outside so come spin with us indoors in this lovely converted church in the heart of Baltimore! Expect live DJs, various vendors, and warm community vibes!

Ticket link

Join Regenerate! Orchestra of DMV for a cozy, magical Winter Solstice Immersion in person—feel the season’s vibes!

Regenerate! Orchestra of DMV makes its Baltimore debut Monday, December 22nd, with a one-of-a-kind orchestra immersion celebrating the Winter Solstice.

Part symphony, part jam session, part group meditation, the Regenerate! Orchestra invites audiences to sit back, stroll around, and enjoy the results of a bespoke performance from DMV's first experimental improvising community symphony orchestra. Each Regenerate! concert is designed specifically for the instruments performed by those who have signed up to participate. Check out the incredible talent from the DMV area at these one-of-a-kind performances!

We'll be playing The Sun Stands Still by Grey Rose Grant, an immersive orchestra work reflecting on and celebrating the winter solstice. This show will be unlike any orchestra you've heard before, book while there are still tickets available! Show for one night only on December 22nd at 7:30pm at 2640 Space in Balitmore.

Tickets are pay-what-you-can, at $5, $10, or $20. Kids under 14 attend for free. If ticket costs present a barrier to attending, we have a limeted number of discount tickets availible. Reach out to wesleyhornpetrie@gmail.com for more info or questions!

Regenerative Sonic Immersion \\ Winter Solstice \\ Regenerate! Orchestra

Ticket link - $10

Boh Re Mi is back for our winter concert, showcasing new songs and old favorites! Join us for a night of music at the beautiful 2640 Space.

Charm City Craft Mafia returns to 2640 Space with its annual holiday market, Holiday Heap.

Presented by Ottobar. Please direct all questions to management@theottobar.com

Ticket Link

claire rousay’s music cascades from a well of documented experience, reflections of the past that compose the present. A prolific multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer, rousay gracefully crafts boundaryless music. From her frequent and acclaimed collaborations to her film scoring, from her own compositions to her solo pop work, rousay’s music is delicate yet powerful, carefully constructed with a casual intimacy. rousay collages a wealth of found sounds and field recordings with earthy strings, stately piano, and processed instrumentation, all of which trace the outlines of memories and distinct impressions and create a complex constellation of feeling. a little death illustrates rousay’s ability to sculpt sonic microcosms from disparate raw materials, worlds where sound and feeling are one in the same. Shaped around field recordings she captured at dusk, the album is an homage to the gentle drifts and lurking disquiet of twilight.

The process of composing a little death felt like a homecoming for rousay after the more pop-oriented song forms of 2024’s sentiment. “sentiment was a different way of working that helped refresh my music making habits and usual flow,” rousay notes. “This record is a return to what I see as my core solo practice, a re-dedication to those methods of working which I’ve found most align with what I envision my music or sound to be.” Intended as a part of a trilogy along with a heavenly touch and a softer focus, the pieces on a little death sprout from a wellspring of tactile samples and granularly processed sounds. The use of sounds recorded from her life outside of the studio remains a throughline in her work. While the previous two albums used field recordings as the primary sound source or central figure in the compositions, here they act more as springboards, timbrally intertwining with live instruments like additional voices in a chamber ensemble. Captured as daylight fades into memory, the sounds give a subtler diaristic impression, the recordings occupying a more elemental space which give moments of absolute clarity a shine in the dim gloaming.

RØPE - Baltimore-based No Wave

GOLDFEATHER is an experimental pop band based out of New York City. The whimsical brainchild of Sarah Goldfeather and Mike Tierney, Goldfeather’s music has been described as “a nightmare funhouse-mirror take on Carly Rae Jepson-style upbeat pop [that is] deeply disconcerting and outrageously fun” (National Sawdust Log), with songs that are “as crazy as they are catchy... a three minute rush of conflicting emotions over sonic exploration... sounds from one universe seem to be leaking into another" (New Sounds), “giddy, cute, vulnerable, and delightful” (I Care If You Listen), “full of light and life” (The Current, Minnesota Public Radio), and “pop on steroids” (The Big Takeover). Recent highlights include performing on New Sounds with John Schaefer (WNYC) in July 2023. Their fourth studio album, Change, was released in 2023 on innova (American Composers Foundation) after winning the label’s national call for recording projects. Sarah and Mike have led rich and eclectic musical careers that inform their music. Sarah is a composer-performer whose compositions include commissions from pianist Timo Andres, ETHEL quartet, Contemporaneous, Alkemie, W4RP, and more. She is the co-founder, and artistic director and violinist of the seven-piece new music ensemble Exceptet and has an active career as a violinist and singer, including holding the violin chair for the Tony-Award winning and Grammy-nominated Broadway production of Oklahoma!, among other on-and off-Broadway productions. She performs regularly with new music ensemble Contemporaneous and is a teaching artist for Musicambia, a music education program that works with incarcerated populations. Mike is a four-time Grammy-nominated audio engineer and producer based in Brooklyn who has worked with a range of artists across genres, including Steve Reich; Medeski Martin & Wood; Stephen Stills; Julia Wolfe; Pharaoh Sanders; Judy Collins; and Alarm Will Sound. He currently works out of his studio, Fieldnotes Studio.

mod f is an electronic improvising duo of Alexander Wu and Maxwell Gong. In their music, the material world is distorted, physicality decoupled from sound waves; metaphors feed back into one another and into themselves.

A celebration of Queer, Saphhic, Masc, Butch, and Stud gifts and garb.

Free entry, masks provided

Tickets: $15 at the door

Drawing on the talent of musicians from the El Paso, Texas / Ciudad Juárez border and around the world, El Paso Barroco (EPB) is a conductor-less collective of musicians dedicated to historically informed performance. Comprising three ensembles: a Baroque orchestra, a viola da gamba consort, and a period string quartet, EPB fosters early music through variety and community engagement.

EPB was founded by brothers Alberto and Octavio Macías Meléndez in an effort to offer musicians opportunities to perform on replicas of period instruments, bringing history to life through sound while fostering a binational musical community. EPB's mission is to provide the El Paso TX / Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, community with immersive and historically informed experiences that introduce students, musicians, and audiences to the Baroque and beyond.

Since its founding in 2017, EPB has collaborated with partners such as the El Paso Museum of Art, Paso del Sur, the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, the University of New Mexico, the University of Arizona, the institute of Mexican Culture in Washington D.C. and the Johns Hopkins University

For this concert, 4+ Guitarra, guitarist Edgar Camargo will be performing with members of EPB. 

Doors at 7 PM, music at 7:30 PM

Peabody Improvisers Collective (PIC) is a student led improvising collective led by Kieun Song, Alex Wu, and Max Gong. They rehearse weekly at the Center St. Performance Studio across from Peabody where most of the collective members go (went) to school. In this semester’s performance, we invited 6 talented improvisers from other local schools to play in curated sets with 12 of us from Peabody.

Peabody: 

Kylan Hillman 

Sarah Parker 

Forrest Wentzel 

Timothy Krippner 

Robby Strauss 

Kieun Song

Claire O’brocta 

Tempest Baum 

Nathan McAdam 

Dominic Lingg 

Michael Begay 

Hamish Robb  

Locals:

Logan Perry 

Elliott Jeter 

August Payne 

Ida Dierker 

Brandon Gouin 

Daniel Stuckenschneider

Get ready for a day of non-stop fun, laughter, and excitement at our spectacular Black Friday Music & Arts Expo. This FREE event will have food, live performances, a food pantry and clothing/toys for families in need. We'll also have local businesses and vendors with great holiday deals & specials for you to enjoy!

Hosted by Tony Aye Artistry, featuring music by: Guise, Pirates of Stonewall, Rae Dante, and a special performance by Double Feature Cast Presents: The Wiz.

Doors at 7:30 PM / Program at 8:00 PM
$10 at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Three Treasures to Hold and Keep is a film made of still images by photojournalist J.M. Giordano and live sound by composer‑performer Daoure Diongue. In each of its three sections, a modern injustice is paired with a fundamental virtue from the Tao Te Ching, forming the themes: Occupation/Mercy, Deportation/Economy, Dictatorship/Humility.

Daoure Diongue is a saxophonist, composer, and sound essayist. He evokes his homes of Baltimore and Senegal through sound. His work draws on world-class conservatory training as a saxophonist and the self-determining ethos of African American Music. Diongue has performed with Lafayette Gilchrist, Dan Deacon, Gary Bartz, UPENDO (Brandon Woody), Konjur Collective, Isiaiah Collier, Luke Stewart, Caroline Davis, and Sean Jones, and at venues including the Kennedy Center, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In a 2025 article for Bandcamp on Baltimore's jazz scene, Andy Thomas wrote, “[Diongue] brought African rhythms and melodies from that tradition together with jazz, R&B, and glitchy electronics on his 2020 album. Featuring Diongue on sax, keys, and vocals, the record was, in the words of Micah E Wood, ‘a soft expansive masterpiece.’”

Joseph Mario (J.M.) Giordano is an award-winning photojournalist based in Baltimore and co-host of the photojournalism podcast, 10 Frames Per Second with Molly Roberts. His book, Trumpland: Carnival to Chaos (Nighted Life Press, 2024), documents the rise of Trump. This year, he was named a finalist for the prestigious National Gallery's Outwin Boochever Portrait Prize and will be featured in American Photography Annual 41 for his coverage of 10 years of police brutality in America. His work was featured in American Photography Annual 40 for his second book, 13-23 (Nighted Life Press), covering a decade of Baltimore's homicides. His international photographs covering the collapse of the steel industry are the subject of a solo show at the Museum of Industry in Baltimore. His first book, We Used to Live At Night (Culture Crush Editions), chronicles 25 years of the city at night and was called "a mix between Weegee and Brassai". His work has been featured on NPR, ProPublica, Al-Jazeera, GQ, Architectural Digest, Taste, The Observer New Review Sunday Magazine, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Washington Post, The Baltimore City Paper, i-D Magazine, Discovery Channel Inc., and Rolling-Stone. His work, from the Struggle Civil Rights series, is in the permanent collections at the Reginald Lewis Museum.