Duo Alex Koi x Kirin McElwain will perform original music for voice, cello and modular synthesizer. Hailing from the New York avant-garde music scene, their music floats between musical poetry, composition and improvisation. Recommended for fans of Laurie Anderson, Arthur Russell, and Meredith Monk.

Cellist Mikey Marget and bassist Maddie Thies will perform an all-instrumental opening set of original and traditional tunes, interweaving classical, jazz, folk/fiddle, and experimental music styles.

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Alex Koi is a vocalist, composer, and improvising musician. Through polyphonic narrative, ecstatic release, and coy murmurs, she bends between her diverse musical influences in the avant-garde, opera, jazz, and electronic music worlds. She is the vocalist and co-composer of saajtak, which Tone Madison called “one of the most intriguing and unclassifiable bands in the country right now.” Alex has had the privilege of collaborating with musicians, composers, visual artists, directors, and dancers at venues such as Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe's Pub, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She recently played the combined role of Tracy Dunn/Jillian Gilchrist in the Off-Broadway production of "Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower," Toshi Reagon's theatrical adaptation of the beloved novel.

Kirin McElwain is a cellist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer working in the realms of experimental, improvised, contemporary classical, and popular music. She uses cello, modular synthesizer, and voice to explore the tension between formal structure and chaos, Western classical harmony and noise, and ideas of “goodness” and “correctness.” Trained as a classical cellist, Kirin is equally at home in concert halls, recording studios, and DIY venues. She has performed on various film and television scores (HBO, Gimlet Media, PBS, NPR Music, YouTube Music); with contemporary artists (Post Malone, Ioanna Gika, This Will Destroy You); in contemporary dance concerts (Claudia Schreier Company, Harlem Dance Theater, Triskelion Arts); for mixed media installations (the MET, James Cohan Gallery, Neue Galerie); and in traditional classical and contemporary/new music concerts (Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, Kimmel Center).

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Mikey Marget (they/them) is a cellist, and songwriter in South Minneapolis. Their original instrumental music interweaves traditional folk with modern improvisational elements, while their singing tunes touch on radical joy in community. By melding together elements of Scandinavian and U.S. old-time fiddle music with electric instruments and improvisation, Mikey plays with concepts of time, connection, relationship, and ancestry.

Mikey Marget Band Members:
Mikey Marget - Cello/Compositions
Maddie Thies - Bass