Ear Taxi Festival, a program of New Music Chicago, was founded in 2016 and is the preeminent contemporary music festival in the Midwest. The Ear Taxi Festival 2025, themed “The Composer’s Voice,” is a landmark event showcasing contemporary concert music across Chicagoland from October 3 to 31, 2025. This third iteration builds on the success of previous festivals in 2016 and 2021, which featured over 54 and 100 concerts respectively, drawing thousands of attendees and garnering national acclaim.
ETF ‘25 will highlight over 350 artists in over 50 hours of programming, including large-scale Anchor Performances, Composer Showcases, Taxi Performance Series, and Accent Concerts. As the largest contemporary music festival in the Midwest, ETF ’25 will spotlight Illinois and Chicago’s talented artists, further establishing the city as a key destination for contemporary music. The festival will offer an unprecedented number of commissions for Illinois-based composers—20 through the Composers Showcase and up to 15 more through the Taxi Performances—making it the largest single commissioning initiative in Illinois history. The festival will bring contemporary music to venues across Chicagolands neighborhoods, including the Kehrein Center for the Arts, Constellation, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts, Epiphany for the Arts, and many more.
ETF will include five categories of events:
- Anchor Performances curated to feature operatic, orchestral, and other large works.
- Composer Showcases featuring different chamber ensembles paired with vocal artists premiering new commissions.
- Taxi Performances curated from proposals by Illinois artists and composers.
- Accent Concerts providing inclusion, promotion, and advertising for performances beyond the Anchor, Composer Showcase, and Taxi performances.
- Education and Professional Development events, including a mix of panel discussions, presentations, open rehearsals, and networking events to unite the city’s new music community and bolster the careers of Chicago’s artistic workforce.
For more information, please visit https://www.eartaxifestival.com
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