$20 ADV / DOS (General Admission)
8:00pm Show
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.
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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.” Koi 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, McElwain is equally at home in concert halls, recording studios, and DIY venues. Her solo discography includes the 2023 EP Viriditas (self-released) and the 2025 full-length Youth (AKP Recordings) — both of which were included on year-end lists at A Closer Listen and Anxious Magazine — as well as singles and remix work for Mystery Circles and sound artist/DJ/composer Omar Ahmad. As a cellist, McElwain can be heard on various film and television scores, including Devonté Hynes’ (Blood Orange) solo cello score for the feature-length film The Invite directed by Olivia Wilde. She has also served as a music coordinator and cellist for composer Tamar-kali, in addition to work for clients such as HBO, National Geographic, Gimlet Media, and NPR.
