Benjamin Zucker

At EMS 10–20 December 2025.

Ben Zucker uses music to speculate on the systems and shapes of change, which has lead to a wide-ranging career as a composer, multi-instrumentalist improviser, producer, and cultural worker, with contributions to experimental scenes across North America and Europe. Acclaimed as a “master of improvisation” (IMPOSE Magazine), and “more than a little bit remarkable” (Free Jazz Blog), their work includes “stirring compositions…built on a lifetime of musical curiosity” (Chicago Reader), performed by artists including Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente, David Moliner, Khorikos, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Distractfold Ensemble, and Musica Nucleo Nova. As a performer, he utilizes vibraphone, brass, keys, voice, and electronics across styles including with musicians such as Anthony Braxton, Gareth Davis, the Vocal Constructivists, Karen Borca, Rinde Eckert, and Beth Orton, and makes frequent local appearances as an ensemble contributor and bandleader of experimental jazz quartet Fifth Season and creative music collective Mad Myth Science, the latter called “the next generation of Chicago jazz” by the Quietus. Following PhD studies at Northwestern University, they continue to live in Chicago, working as a freelance musician, lecturer, President of New Music Chicago, and curator for Elastic Arts’ Improvised Music Series.