Nick Dunston premieres Near of Kin, a new song cycle about family—chosen and inherited, contemporary and ancestral, loving and damaging. The title comes from novelist Octavia Butler, whose writing grapples with kinship and power.

With Julian Otis and Ben Lamar Gay on vocals, Gay also on cornet and electronics, and a string trio of Caroline Jesalva, Tomeka Reid, and Dunston.

Nick Dunston (b.1996, Washington, D.C.) is a composer, improviser, and sound artist active in the New York and Berlin experimental music scenes. His work spans large-ensemble composition, improvisation, and multimedia projects, often integrating electronics and live processing.

Dunston has received commissions from Wet Ink Ensemble, Bang on a Can, JACK Quartet, Gaudeamus Festival, A L’ARME Festival, Ekmeles, and others, and has collaborated as a performer with artists including Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Moor Mother, Darius Jones, Lucrecia Dalt, Joy Guidry, Son Lux, Craig Taborn, Dave Douglas, Allison Miller, Anna Webber, and Amirtha Kidambi. In 2019 he received a Van Lier Fellowship from Roulette, supporting the creation of the trans-media song cycle La Operación, the double bass quintet piece The Floor is Lava!, and his debut studio album Atlantic Extraction.

Recent recordings include Spider Season (2022) and the Afro-surrealist-anti-opera COLLA VOCE (Out Of Your Head Records, 2024). Dunston can also be heard on the score to the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). He has presented artist talks at institutions including the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, the University of Iowa, and Stony Brook University. Dunston was nominated for the Deutscher Jazzpreis in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and with Cansu Tanrikulu won the SWR Jazz Prize in 2024.

Lampo, established in 1997, supports artists working in new music, experimental sound, and other interdisciplinary practices. The Chicago-based organization's core activity has been and remains its performance series. Rather than making programming decisions around tour schedules, Lampo invites selected artists to create and perform new work, and then the organization provides the space, resources, and curatorial support to help them fulfill their vision. Lampo also organizes artist talks, lectures, screenings, and workshops, and publishes written and recorded documents related to its series.

Accessibility: This event will be held in the ballroom on the third floor of the Madlener House, which is only accessible by stairs. The first-floor galleries and bookshop are accessible via outdoor lift. Please contact us at 312.787.4071 or info@grahamfoundation.org to make arrangements.

Note: Registration for Lampo programs is required, but does not guarantee entry. Capacity for this performance is limited. Doors open 30 minutes prior to the performance and seats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis for those registered in advance. Reservations expire 5 minutes before the performance start time, at which point seating will be released to the waitlist. Due to the popularity of the Lampo programs, performances quickly reach capacity. No late seating will be permitted.

Photo: G. Richter