in association with True/False Music

Chicago-based guitarist, improviser, composer, poet, and singer Bill MacKay has spent the past 20+ years cementing his name as one of the most inventive and talented American guitarists. A prolific artist on the Drag City Records roster, Bill has compelling solo records (most recently 2024’s Locust Land); collaborative albums with Ryley Walker, Nathan Bowles, and Katinka Kleijn; and projects with bands BCMC (with Columbia’s own son Cooper Crain) and Black Duck (with jazz drummer Charles Rumback and Doug McCombs of Tortoise). From the avant-garde to the American songbook, Bill uses his guitar to manifest sublime beauty and effervescent grace like only a select few around the world can. Bill MacKay will open with solo guitar from 7:30-8. 

Kelly Moran is a New York-based composer and pianist who has spent her career excavating the sonic possibilities of the piano. In the past decade, Moran has released numerous acclaimed albums that have challenged the piano’s traditional, classically-imposed school of thought with a more contemporary approach. Her unique strand of experimental piano compositions, which conjure hypnotizing textures and dramatic compositional arcs, have been included on year-end lists across classical, avant-garde, and metal genres.
  Moran’s most recent album, Moves in the Field, was praised by the New York Times for being “a softhearted but steel-skinned set of 10 piano pieces that are as rapturous as a waterfall or as delicate as vapor. Her first album in six years, it is the redemptive conclusion in an extended span of personal tragedy and professional doubt, all ingrained in its sweeping songs.”
  An accomplished and highly sought-after composer, Moran has collaborated with visionary contemporaries including FKA Twigs, Yves Tumor, The Avalanches, Kelsey Lu, Oneohtrix Point Never, and classical musician Margaret Leng Tan.

Friday, Mar. 6, 2026

Rogers Whitmore Recital Hall

Doors: 7 | Start: 7:15
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