
Full Schedule
The Ear Taxi Festival 2025, themed "The Composer’s Voice," is a landmark event showcasing contemporary concert music across Chicagoland from October 3 through November 2, 2025. ETF ‘25 will highlight over 500 artists in over 50 hours of programming, including large-scale Anchor Performances, Composer Showcases, Taxi Performance Series, and Accent Concerts.

Composer Showcase Featuring Quintet Attacca
Quintet Attacca perform five world premieres by Illinois composers. Gillian Rae Perry writes “Three Months (after)”: the passage of time in relation to grief and loss. Marybeth Kurnat’s music creates echoes of wisdom from the Holocaust, based on words from child survivors of Terezin. Alex Taylor writes about the Orpheus myth told from Eurydice's perspective. Shane Cook reminds us that ...try as you might, we can't turn back to seed.

Composer Showcase Featuring Kaia String Quartet
Kaia String Quartet premieres new works by Illinois composers. Rosśa Crean writes music for the tender moments between collapse and beginning again. Lee Kesselman’s musical meditation is a search for the personal side of prayer. Justin Weiss writes an exploration of our relationship with nature, time, and memory. Graham Meyer uses Sappho's poetic fragments, both in words and wordless song.

Composer Showcase Featuring the Ravinia Steans Institute
Vocalists Sabrina Langlois, Joanne Evans, and Brent Funderburk from the Ravinia Steans Institute premiere new works for voice and piano by Illinois composers Paul Novak, Blair Boyd, Eric Malmquist, Andrei Skorobogatykh, Asher Sizemore, Liza Sobel Crane, and Bradley Robin.

Composer Showcase Featuring Lakeshore Rush
Lakeshore Rush premieres new works by Illinois composers. Natasha Bogojevic writes a meditation on the effects of gun violence. Xavier Beteta weaves songs in an ancient Mayan language. Angel Bat Dawid writes about the Catacombs. Ethan Dymit’s “Child’s Play” uses nursery rhymes as a starting point.