CompFest 2026: EarthSeed ft. Nicole Mitchell, Lisa E. Harris, Kebbi Williams, and more! 2/9, 2/13, 2/14

One of the most meaningful and exciting parts of my work at Emory is organizing and shaping the programming for our annual CompFest.

This year, we are thrilled to welcome Nicole Mitchell and Lisa E. Harris, as our featured guest artists!

Info here: https://music.emory.edu/undergraduate/composition/CompFest.html

Details below! ATLians come out!

MONDAY 2/9 

Nicole and Lisa join local improvisers at eyedrum for our Monday Night Creative Music Series. | 8pm | Donation

As part of their Atlanta residency for Emory's CompFest 2026: EarthSeed, Nicole Mitchell (flutes) and Lisa E. Harris (voice) perform tonight in improvised settings with local artists Chris Cook (harp), Deisha Oliver (cello), Monique Osorio (voice), and Cameron Cook (percussion).

https://www.eyedrum.org/calendar-events-performances-art-music/ki18pjkto3l210z3c6hkldd0m0s4o9 

 

COMPFEST 2026: EARTHSEED

February 13–14, 2026

CompFest 2026 highlights Afrofuturistic sonic, musical, and narrative visionaries, and features internationally acclaimed creative flutist, composer, conceptualist, bandleader and educator Nicole Mitchell and vocalist, interdisciplinary artist, and researcher Lisa E. Harris. 

The festival culminates on Saturday 2/14 with a presentation of Mitchell and Harris’s collaborative, evening-length piece EarthSeed, inspired by and in tribute to  groundbreaking African American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. EarthSeed powerfully interprets Butler’s writings through composed and improvised music for instrumental ensemble and vocalists. Mitchell and Harris bring their innovative practices to Emory, presenting the work in an ensemble with local improvisers, faculty members, and Emory students.

Concerts each night at Emory's Performing Arts Studio, free and open to the public.
1804 N. Decatur Rd., Atlanta, GA 30022

Recommended parking: Parking lot adjacent to the building on Burlington Road or Gambrell/Lowergate South Parking Deck.

Friday, Feb. 13, Concert at 8pm

Mitchell and Harris present their duo music, sharing the evening with Grammy-winning Atlanta-based improviser Kebbi Williams and student performers in Emory Jazz Combo 1.

Emory Arts Calendar listing.

Saturday, Feb. 14, Concert at 8pm

oncert program features:

Mitchell and Harris present EarthSeed in a mixed ensemble featuring Christopher Briggs Rodriguez (voice), Katherine Young (bassoon), Kenito Murray (percussion), and student performers from Emory Sound Collective.

Pre-Concert Talk at 7pm with the artists and Georgia Tech scholar of Black Feminism, Black Digital Media, and Afrofuturism Dr. Susana Morris.
Senior Director of Culture, Community, and Partner Engagement at Emory Libraries and Michael C. Carlos Museum Dr. Clint Fluker will moderate the conversation.

Emory Arts Calendar listing.

"If we stay still" installation at the Goat Farm's SITE

If We Stay Still: Jeremy Bolen, Katherine Young, Alexandria Smith

Exploring how our patterns of movement impact the world we live in, If we stay still uses sound, video, sculpture, and live musical performance to create an immersive, interactive environment in which stillness and action feel both unnervingly impossible and urgently necessary. This installation reflects on the potential of slowing our movement throughout the planet while speculating on what the planet might look and sound like in a geo-engineered future. 

A collaboration between artist / researcher / filmmaker Jeremy Bolen, music technologist / performer-composer / researcher Alexandria Smith, and composer / sonic artist Katherine Young, this installation speculates on a not-too-distant future where the sky has been engineered to block out the sun and once extinct species (the passenger pigeon) have been brought back through de-extinction methods. 

The evening soundscape recording was made at the Hard Labor Creed Observatory in Georgia, on the homelands of the peoples of the Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee nations. 

Visitors are invited to explore and interact with the space to see how their movements and positions change the sonic environment. 

Performers:

Chris Childs - percussion 

Deisha Oliver - cello

Monique Osorio - voice

Installation Assistance:

TeAiris Majors (Audio System Development Assistant)

Devon Green 

Evan Maloney  

At SITE on Saturday, Sept 27, 2025 — a monumental evening of art installations, live performances, exhibitions, and open studios, all in one expansive event transforming the entire 12-acre Goat Farm campus and featuring over 60 participating artists. 

 

August 2025 - Mycorrhiza VI Premiere

Mycorrhiza VI (for Erica, John, and Mabel) 

composed by Katherine Young

electronics developed with Hans Tammen

premiere performance by Kylwryia Trio

* Erica Dicker - violin

* John Gattis - horn

* Mabel Kwan - piano

Sunday, August 17, 2025

3:00 PM

WADA

St. Petersburg, FL

piece developed with support from Harvestworks and Hambidge residencies

performance supported by Creative Pinellas Arts Impact Fund

https://wadastpete.org/ 

https://www.kylwyria.com/

2025...

 January 23 - Yarn/Wire performs BIOMES 6.0

@ Black Mountain College Museum, Asheville, NC, 7pm

https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/events/yarn-wire-concert/

January 31 - Duo with Jeff Crompton

@ First Existentialist, ATL, 8pm

https://atlnowmusic.org/concert/jeff-crompton-katherine-young-roger-ruzow-ipek-eginli-and-john-kiran-fernandes/

February 8 - Bent Frequency + Jesse Langan performs Camilles for sax, guitar, piano, and percussion

@ Emory Performing Arts Studio, ATL, 8pm

part of CompFest 2025: In Our Own House

March 8  - the Music of Anthony Braxton 

@ Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 8pm

https://www.loc.gov/item/event-415334/music-of-anthony-braxton/2025-03-08/ 

Midwest Tour with Dana Jessen, Ben Roidl-Ward  performing "Altarpiece H. af K." by Eric Wubbels

3/20 - Oberlin, OH - Fairchild Chapel / 7:30pm / with Aurie Hsu & Steven Kemper

3/21 - Cleveland, OH - CUSP: Calicchia Gallery Studio, 1433 E 33rd St Cleveland

Doors 7:30, Music 8PM / with Ryan Carter

3/22 - Urbana-Champaign, IL - Gallery Art Bar, 7pm / with Kerrith Livengoog

3/23 - Chicago, IL - Elastic Arts / 7pm / with Kari Watson

Midwest Concerts with Beautifulish (Sam Scranton + KAY)

3/29 - Chicago (okay really Oak Park) - Compound Yellow / 7pm / with Daniel Wyche Ensemble

3/30 - Milwaukee -  Woodland Pattern Books, Milwaukee / 7pm

April 25 - Ensemble Paramirabo + Jean-François Laporte (Table de Babel) premiere "Into this dark forest you have already turned" for noise maker, ensemble, and electronics

McGill University's CIRMMT, Montréal, 7:30pm

https://ensembleparamirabo.com/en/events/2024-2025/totem

May 22 - Elena Cholakova premieres "Mvmt 2" of Mycorrhiza IV at Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University

ALBUMS OUT - Fall 2023

BOUNDARYMIND  with Linda Jankowska out on Carrier Records

https://jankowska-young.bandcamp.com/album/boundarymind

CLAMOR by Jessica Pavone on Out of Your Head Records

https://jessicapavone.bandcamp.com/album/clamor

FALL 2023 SHOWS

Sept 9 @ Roulette NYC with Beautifulish (Sam Scranton) to celebrate 20 Years of Shinkoyo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JVAzBdtT7c

Oct 12 @ Emory Performing Arts Studio ATL with John Bischoff, Jeff Albert, Theodosia Roussos, and Annalee Traylor

Oct 27 @ First Existentialist ATL with Jeff Crompton, Ben Shirley, Paul Stevens, Ben Davis, David Gray, Chip Epsten, and Sandy Wade

Nov 10 @ Sunview Luncheonette NYC with Jessica Pavone and friends! 

https://www.thesunview.org/jessica-pavone/  

Nov 12 @ Pioneer Works NYC with Jessica Pavone's String Ensemble to celebrate the release of CLAMOR (Out of Your Heads Records)

https://pioneerworks.org/programs/second-sundays-november-2023

Spores review in SF Classical Voice

 https://www.sfcv.org/articles/review/pandemic-reunion-program-green-umbrella-turns-celebration#

As Adams pointed out from the stage, the role of improvisation, which once played an important role in classical music, has been all but replaced by exact notation. That is not the case for composer and bassoon virtuoso Katherine Young. Her LA Phil commission Spores was initially composed in 2017, its premiere delayed until Tuesday, first by illness, then by the pandemic.
If there is such a thing as a rock-star electric bassoonist, it would have to be Young. “She’s got more foot pedals than Jimi Hendrix,” Adams quipped.

Young’s title is a reference to the reproductive units produced by mushrooms, some of which have managed to migrate around the globe. Another influence, Young said, was early electronic-music compositions. It makes for a fascinating blend — airborne “spores” in the form of electronics and phasing, plus extended sections of improvisation in which musicians are instructed to listen to what other musicians are playing and then riff on it.

Composed for electronic and acoustic bassoon, assorted brass, winds, strings, and a battery of percussion, including a pair of triangles, the piece is by turns as dense as molasses, as light as air (with the musicians encouraged to vocalize their breath), and as freewheeling as a trip down the open highway.