Frequency Series Archives - Chicago Reader

A collage of photos of performers at the 2022 Frequency Festival, clockwise from upper left: Jordan Dykstra, Matchess, Susan Alcorn, Tomeka Reid, Jeff Kimmel, Lia Kohl & Macie Stewart, Hanna Hartman, Ryan Packard, Bill Nace, Haley Fohr, and Ensemble dal Niente

A concert-by-concert guide to the Frequency Festival

by Bill Meyer February 18, 2022February 18, 2022

After a COVID gap year, the Frequency Festival returns on February 22. The six-day event is an outgrowth of the Frequency Series, which is programmed by former Chicago Reader staff music critic Peter Margasak and hosted by Constellation. Founded in 2013, shortly after drummer and promoter Mike Reed opened the north-side venue, the series presents […]

Performers at February's Frequency Festival, clockwise from upper left: cellist Tomeka Reid, who'll lead a string quartet with Sam Bardfeld, Curtis Stewart, and Stephanie Griffin; Swedish composer and sound artist Hanna Hartman, who's making her Chicago debut; and pedal-steel guitarist Susan Alcorn

Music

New-music feast the Frequency Festival returns after taking a COVID year

by J.R. Nelson and Leor Galil January 25, 2022January 25, 2022

Former Reader staff writer Peter Margasak has been programming the Frequency Series at Constellation since 2013, bringing in artists from across the wide spectrum of experimental and new music for weekly showcases. Since 2016 Margasak has also booked the annual Frequency Festival, which skipped 2021 for obvious reasons; the festival will return for its sixth […]

Music

The 2020 Frequency Festival announces a lineup of world-class experimental music

by Bill Meyer November 20, 2019August 18, 2021

Highlights of the 2020 Frequency Festival include a fusion of Carnatic music and jazz, a solo vocal piece for Diamond Reynolds, and programs of work by Eliane Radigue and Annea Lockwood.

Music

Different avant-garde disciplines vibrate sympathetically at the Frequency Festival

by Bill Meyer February 7, 2019August 18, 2021

When former Reader staff writer Peter Margasak began programming the Frequency Series in 2013, he envisioned concerts that would expose audiences of different avant-garde musical disciplines to artists from other genres that they had not heard before but might well appreciate. Margasak left the Reader and Chicago in order to move to Rome in 2018, […]