Creative Musicians Retreat Artists

Nicole Mitchell, CMR 2026 Composer-in-Residence

Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, composer, bandleader, and educator. She is perhaps best known for her work as a flutist, having developed a unique improvisational language and having been repeatedly awarded “Top Flutist of the Year” by the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association (2010-2022). Mitchell initially emerged from Chicago’s innovative music scene in the late 90s. She started with Maia and Shanta Nurullah in Samana (the AACM’s first all-woman ensemble) and as a member of the David Boykin EXPANSE. Her music celebrates contemporary African American culture. She is the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Sonic Projections, and Ice Crystal, and she composes for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size, while incorporating improvisation and a wide aesthetic expression. The former first woman president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Mitchell celebrates endless possibility by “creating visionary worlds through music that bridge the familiar with the unknown.”

David Friend, piano

David Friend is taking piano performance in new directions. As chamber musician, soloist, and in interdisciplinary projects, his performances have been hailed as “astonishingly compelling” (Washington Post), and he is a featured pianist on Third Coast Percussion’s Grammy Award-winning album of music by Steve Reich. He has performed at major venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall (London), and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing). As soloist, David Friend is noted for charismatic performances and thoughtful programming. His 2022 album for solo piano and live processing with Jerome Begin, Post- (New Amsterdam), was hailed by critics in the USA and abroad, including The Guardian, whose 4-star review hailed its “precise piano solos” and “weirdly brutal American minimalism.”

Ensemble Dal Niente

Ensemble Dal Niente performs, develops, and sustains new and experimental music for small to large chamber ensemble. They are dedicated to growing relationships with artists, composers, and listeners; advancing distinct and challenging musical voices; and sharing that work with Chicago, U.S., and international communities.

Dal Niente’s roster of 26 musicians presents an uncommonly broad range of contemporary music. Audiences coming to Dal Niente shows can expect distinctive productions—from fully staged operas to multimedia spectacles to intimate solo performances— that are curated to pique curiosity and connect art, culture, and people.

The ensemble’s name, Dal Niente (“from nothing” in Italian), is a tribute to Helmut Lachenmann’s Dal niente (Interieur III), a work that upended traditional conceptions of instrumental technique; and also a reference to the group’s humble beginnings.

Members of Ensemble Dal Niente at CMR 2026 will include:

Emma Hospelhorn, flute
Jesse Langen, guitar
Theo Ramsey, violin/viola
Kyle Flens, percussion
Nicholas Johnson, cello