PERFORMANCE PROJECTS

Portraits of Sonic Freedom, Mitchell’s Guggenheim project, celebrates the legacy of creative music and its contributions to jazz, the Black intellectual tradition, Afrofuturism and the expansion of human consciousness.

It premiered in Charlottesville at the Unity Church in 2025, and was performed at the Vision Festival, New York in 2025.

The development of Portraits of Sonic Freedom was supported by a 2023 fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Activist and scholar Angela Davis has been an incredible force for social justice for over 50 years. Radical Transformation, by composer/creative flutist Nicole Mitchell is a musical celebration of Davis’ courage and resilience. It strives to amplify Davis’ activist vision and concerns towards creating a better world.  The music features the words of Angela Davis from writings and is infused with her voice from speeches.

Radical Transformation was commissioned by the Chicago Humanities Festival. World Premiere was at Chicago Humanities Festival in 2025.

Forward-thinking Chicago flautist Nicole Mitchell and innovative Bamako (Mali) kora player Ballaké Sissoko have created something truly magnificent: a respectful, enthusiastic blend of artistic approaches. Joined by musicians from each city – with guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Joshua Abrams singer Mankwe Ndosi and percussionist JoVia Armstrong representing Chicago, and singer Fatim Kouyate and balafon maestro Fassery Diabaté Bamako – the two leaders approach each other’s vision with due reverence and an eagerness to learn. Bamako Chicago Sound System’s recording was released by FPE in 2024.

The Bamako*Chicago Sound System project was supported by the French Ministry of Culture, a MacArthur International Grant, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, 3Arts Chicago, Chicago World Music Festival and the Doris Duke Foundation.

Black Earth SWAY sings liberation through Afro-Folk-Futurism, in the celebration of open spirits and sisterhood. BE SWAY is a platform for new mythologies in Black American storytelling in a liquid melding of funk, blues, experimental jazz, and more.  All the members of BES are composers and bring their songs, seeking realness, joy and honesty in their free expression. Black Earth SWAY traverses the endless possibilities of Black music, bringing the “fun” back to jazz music. Nicole Mitchell (flute, vocals, electronics), Coco Elysses (didley bow, vocals), JoVia Armstrong (percussion, vocals, electronics), Alexis Lombre (piano, keyboards, vocals)

Poetry and creative music collide in this wondergroup featuring Chicago’s poet laurette avery r. young, with JoVia Armstrong and Nicole Mitchell on electronics, percussion and flute. Blues and gospel travel through interstellar space and back again. The OTHERS have performed at Sharp 9 in Durham and at ArtLitLab in Madison in 2024.

Improvisation on fire with reckless abandon. The result? An unpredictable journey into Black music where any feeling, groove, texture or space is possible in the immediate moment. Nicole Mitchell flute, Luke Stewart bass, Tcheser Holmes drumset.

JBM: Images Beyond is a theatrical concert that celebrates the unrevealed afro-surrealist folk art and poetry of Nicole Mitchell’s mother and creative inspiration, Joan Beard Mitchell. Joan Beard Mitchell was born and raised on Chicago’s southside; her works show an aesthetic connection to the experimentalism and afro-surrealist ideals within the Chicago Black Arts Movement. Her artistic development reached merit in Syracuse, New York and she continued to create in isolation after moving to Orange County, California, where she met her abrupt death in 1983.

In Images Beyond, JBM’s words are organized into a dramatic expression played by actor/vocalist Maia and interwoven with original music by Nicole Mitchell, in an environment that visually features JBM’s paintings, watercolors and graphic art. Images Beyond premiered in Chicago in 2013 on the 30th anniversary of JBM’s death, and was performed in Los Angeles at Angel City Jazz Festival in 2023.

Flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Mike Reed are three of the most prominent members of the third generation of Association for Advancement of Creative Music (AACM). Each one is a consummate musician; equally adept at composing and improvising. Each one of them has forged their boldly unique artistic path with an instantly recognizable sound.  Their collaborative album Artifacts is a compelling and exquisite work that augments their innovative individual styles with a superb almost telepathic camaraderie. On it they interpret nine gems penned by other AACM members.” —  Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz

Duo project of Fay Victor and Nicole Mitchell for voices, flutes and electronics.

Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds …”an impossibly beautiful work of art that conveys a necessary message of resistance, fighting for change and freeing one’s mind through imagination and music.” — Nicola Negri, Free Jazz Collective.

Nicole Mitchell flute, avery r young spoken word, vocals, Ko Umezaki shakuhachi, Tatsu Aoki bass, shamisen, Alex Wing electric guitar, oud, theramin, Mazz Swift violin, Tomeka Reid cello, JoVia Armstrong percussion.

Mandorla Awakening II was commissioned by the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.

Iridescent, a duo project featuring Nicole Mitchell and Christina Wheeler, combines flute, mbira, electronics, and processed vocals into a living soundscape that is luminous and shifting. Seeking discovery, raw emotion and cultural expression, Iridescent builds mosaics from harmonizing African rhythms, ethereal atmospheres, and freewheeling moments pointing towards inner awaking. Defying genre, this fully improvised music is a daring adventure that is contemplative, electrifying, and provocative.

JAD: Living Life to the Fullest is a concert-length suite of compositions by flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell that celebrates Minneapolis-based community builder, arts advocate and collector, Jean Ann Durades. The music explores a personal and lyrical side of Mitchell’s music in tribute to her Godmother Jean Ann, who has been an incredible mentor and example to Mitchell over her lifetime. Songs like On the Move, World Traveler, and Truly Whole are informed by JADs inspiring example of courage, integrity, and no nonsense common sense. The music premiered at Walker West Academy, Minneapolis, September 2015 and was performed at Roulette in 2025.