Deirdre Harrison with Katie Mazzini: Tune In, Take Turns

Tune In, Take Turns is an all-ages soundwalk that starts with “ear cleaning” and grounding exercises, followed by a soundwalk/treasure hunt in one of Jens Jensen’s iconic Chicago parks. Participants will engage in yawning and vocal exercises, make joyful noises with choral call-and-response singing, and conclude with a short sound meditation to tune back into themselves before returning to their day. Columbus Park is a 135 acre park located on the far West Side of Chicago, Illinois, in the Austin neighborhood. It is regarded as the finest work by landscape architect Jens Jensen and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. Columbus Park is located at 500 S Central Ave. Please note the rain date for this event is Saturday, September 6, 2025 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM.

RSVP here: https://forms.gle/6SzhZuTKLzLVw3Q38

Deirdre Harrison grew up in Puerto Rico, Canada, and across the USA. She received her BA from Yale University and was the only American in her class at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in the first cohort to earn its three year acting certificate. She earned an Executive Education Scholar Certificate from Kellogg Center for Nonprofit Management. In her acting days, she workshopped and premiered many new plays and European premieres of new American works and is the voice of Athena on Pete Townsend’s Psychoderelict.  She is a dual national of USA/Eire, speaks Italian, and has been a proud member of the British Equity and Actors Equity Association unions for 30+ years.

After years as a performing artist and director based in London, Rome and NYC, Deirdre settled in Chicago where she has served as a lead administrator and consultant in the nonprofit arts, education, and healing sectors for over two decades including: Gateway to Learning, NAMI Chicago, Gateway Foundation, Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, Snow City Arts, Eighth Blackbird and the first iteration of the Blackbird Creative Lab, Creative Partners, Civitas Ensemble, Rush Hour Concerts/Make Music Chicago, Music Institute of Chicago, and Baker Demonstration School. She currently serves as the Interim Executive Director of Sit Stay Read!, a Chicago literacy nonprofit that leverages the power of the human-canine bond by bringing Certified Reading Assistance Dog teams into its early and family literacy programs.

In 2014, with percussionist Kyle Gregory Price, she co-founded The Lucky Trikes, a literacy chamber band that performs in unexpected public spaces with Chicago’s top free jazz and new music artists. She has served on and assisted in the development of the nonprofit boards for the World Listening Project, Actors’ Gymnasium, MOCREP ensemble, and New Music Chicago and in 2023 co-produced the 30th Anniversary Conference of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology at The Atlantic Center for the Arts. 

Katie Mazzini was born on Long Island. She graduated in 2012 with a B.F.A in Musical Theater from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Shortly after, she moved to Chicago where she began working professionally in Tracy Letts’ adaptation of Three Sisters (Steppenwolf Theater Company). Her early credits include Singin’ in the Rain (Drury Lane), and Erica Mott’s devised opera, 3 Singers, where she first met master vocal pedagog and formative mentor, Fides Krucker. In 2013, she joined Chicago’s Walkabout Theater Company and spent 8 years co-devising original pieces across the United States, India, and Poland. In 2021, Katie spent a year as a member of the Focused Research Team in Art as Vehicle at the Wokcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Pontedera, Italy. As part of the Workcenter, she performed in The Underground and Songs of Tradition throughout Italy, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. She is currently a teacher in training with Krucker and developing projects with collaborators around the world. Katie is fat. She’s a passionate researcher, a dedicated TV viewer, and a builder of unconventional bridges across creative fields and forms.