HEAR BELOW, a soundwalk through Chicago’s Pedway system with Allen Moore
2025-05-05 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Block 37, 108 North State Street (near the elevators), Chicago, IL, 60602, United States
We are pleased to announce Hear Below 2025! Did you know that the City of Chicago has five miles of connected underground tunnels, known as the pedway? Attend one of our upcoming soundwalks to learn more and experience the odd and quirky noises reverberating beneath the city’s streets. Soundwalks will be led by featured sound artists Jeanette Dominguez, Sam Anthem, and Allen Moore. Learn more at https://nonopera.org/hear-below/ and register for one or all soundwalks at tinyurl.com/hearbelowFriday, April 18, 1:00 pm – soundwalk with Jeanette DominguezFriday, April 25, 1:00 pm – soundwalk with Sam AnthemMonday, May 5, 4:00 pm – soundwalk with Allen Moore

Re-Sounding Success
2025-05-10 13:00 - 17:00 | Eden’s Place Farm, 4911 S Shields Ave, Chicago, IL, 60609, United States
TERC, a non-profit made up of teams of math and science education is hosting the Re-Sounding Success: A Community Celebration of Sound and STEM @ Eden’s Place Farm on May 10, 2025 from 1:00-5:00pm. MSAE is excited to table at this event, which will highlight science learning opportunities, including interactive ways to explore sound, live DJ performances, and hands-on workshops, plus information about STEM programs (or learning opportunities) for city youth.
Tickets are free so click here to register!!

Wellness Ecosystem Gathering
2025-05-17 11:00 - 14:00 | Caldwell Woods, 6350 W Devon Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60646, United States
Wayfinding LLC launches the very first “Wellness Ecosystem Gathering” as the Forest Preserves of Cook County prepares to open the new Wellness Center at Caldwell Woods. The lineup is incredible and includes Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology. Free and for all ages. Come out and invite your people!!

Free public parking for the Wellness Center event is located on 6350 W. Devon Avenue, east of the intersection of Devon, Nagle, and Milwaukee Avenue.

The Activity Line Up 11:00-2:00

Participatory Sound Bath (11:15)- Stacy Rene Erenberg (The Nest)

Vocal Improvisations- Emmy Bean, Stacy Rene Erenberg, and Michele Thomas (The Nest)

Nature Printing -Claire Jakubiszyn (The Blazing Star School)

Yoga- Wildlight Yoga

Resource Sharing- Girl Forward

Birding- Lillian Holden

Soundwalk- Eric Leonardson (Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology) at 12 noon

Sonic Somatics + Writing Session- Chinyere Achebe

Community Zine Making- Eyzel D. Torres Vicencio

Resource Sharing- Global Gardens Chicago

River Shallows Project- Friends of the Chicago River

And more….

Panel Conversation 12:30-1:45

Culturally Responsive Wellness Practices that Connect to Nature

Raed Mansour, moderator

Devika Ranjan, panelist

Layalee Beirat, panelist

Huu Nguyen, panelist

Gateway to Learning, panelist

American Indian Health Center speaker, panelist

Visit Wayfinding LLC Projects to learn more about this and its other projects.

Sara Zalek & Norman Long: Marsh Melodies and the Breathing Ear
2025-06-07 17:00 - 19:00 | Big Marsh Park, 11559 S Stony Island Ave., 11559 S Stony Island Ave., Chicago, IL, United States
Join Sara Zalek & Norman Long for a soundwalk along Big Marsh’s expansive and recovering landscape/soundscape. The artists write, “As a silent mass, diverse and in solidarity, we listen out for and to the layers of sounds most often tuned out or discounted, points of unity, resonance, dissonance, and divergent noises. Our walk includes meditation practice, ear calibration exercises, interactive recording demonstrations, and performance.” Big Marsh Park is located at 11559 S Stony Island Ave. We will meet at the pavilion or covered meeting area. Click here for accessibility information. Please note the rain date for this event is Saturday, June 14, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM.

For several years, Long and Zalek have documented, researched, walked, and led soundwalks at Big Marsh and other remediated areas in the Calumet region through the support of Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology.
RSVP here: https://forms.gle/D9nBzHhtTpaSAG5ZA

Sara Zalek is a transdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, poetic. They make performances into learning situations, workshops, and sensing environments to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections. Their collaborations are extensive, and continue to actively study dance, music, and art making as part of their practice. They teach movement classes to adults and children. Zalek performs often; The City of Chicago named them an Esteemed Artist in 2022, and awarded a Curatorial Grant by Elastic Arts Foundation 2020-23. They are a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist (2015), 3Arts Make a Wave Awardee, and Ragdale Foundation Fellow. Their work has been supported and well received at incredible venues across Chicago, US, and internationally, including Chicago Cultural Center, High Concept Labs, Experimental Sound Studio, Elastic Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, Links Hall, Lumpen Radio, dfbrl8r, Headwaters in Portland, OR, Arts + Literature Laboratory, Madison, WI, Salish Sea Butoh Festival, Bellingham, WA, Urban Guild in Kyoto, Japan, and so many more.

Norman W. Long’s multi-disciplinary practice involves walking, listening, teaching, improvising, performing, recording, and composing to create environments and situations in which he and the audience are engaged in dialogues about memory, place, ecology, race, culture, value, silence, and the invisible. Norman’s practice has been influenced by the emerging practices and thinking of 1970s artists, musicians, critics, and designers regarding landscape and sound- specifically Rosalind Krauss’ article “Sculpture in the Expanded Field” and the development of the acoustic ecology by R. Murray Schafer. The sounds found in his work has its inspirational roots in the Black music of house and techno, ‘free jazz,’ Great Black Music, Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi, Pauline Oliveros, King Tubby, Dub, and the sounds of artists outside and in-between genres. Long’s improvisational and compositional strategies are inspired by Samuel R. Delany’s palimpsest text “Plague Journal ” chapter of Dhalgren (Science Fiction) and Atlantis: Three tales (Fiction) and Mark Bradford’s survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art: Chicago in 2011 featuring Bradford’s process of collecting and collaging, scraping and pasting materials sourced from his community in Los Angeles.
Holding a Master’s Degree in “New Genres” from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Master’s of Landscape Architecture degree from Cornell University (2008), Norman relocated to Chicago in 2008. His artistic endeavors have been showcased at diverse venues, including Experimental Sound Studio, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Renaissance Society, Yale University, Illinois State University Galleries, SAIC Sullivan Galleries, Chicago Artists Coalition Gallery, Links Hall, Elastic Arts, Constellation, and the Arts Club as part of the 2015 Chicago Humanities Festival. Norman is artist in residence at the Hyde Park Art Center for 2025.
Graphics by http://madelinestocking.com/

Allen Moore: Sonic Drifting through the Square
2025-06-15 12:00 - 13:00 | Palmer Square, 2200 N Kedzie Blvd, Chicago, IL, United States
This guided sound walk through Palmer Square blends field recordings, live interventions, and deep listening practices led by Allen Moore. Experience rhythms of the landscape and let the square become a living score as we drift together. Palmer Square is located at 2200 N Kedzie Blvd. We will meet at the intersection of N. Whipple St. and West Palmer Square. Please note the rain date for this event is Saturday, June 21, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
RSVP here: https://forms.gle/3DzW6pFTe5yiqHm67

Allen Moore (he/him/his) is a Black Interdisciplinary Visual Artist, Experimental Turntableist, Sound Artist, Educator and Youth Mentor born and raised in the Historic Village of Robbins IL. His conceptual premise is to analyze the signifiers of Blackness through performative Improvisation and experimentation.

Graphics by http://madelinestocking.com/

Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology's 2025 Annual General Meeting - Hybrid Event
2025-07-19 11:00 - 12:00 | Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N Ravenswood, Chicago, IL, 60660, United States
Join us for the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday, July 19 at 11:00 AM Central Time. This hybrid event takes place in person at Experimental Sound Studio (5925 N Ravenswood, Chicago, IL 60660) and on Zoom.
Held the day after World Listening Day 2025, the AGM offers a chance for MSAE members to connect, reflect, and shape the organization’s future. The meeting brings together general members and board representatives to share updates and plan ahead. The agenda will be prepared with input from our Executive Committee and committee chairs.
Later this day, stay for “Walking as an Infra-Antenna,” a soundwalk and radiophonic performance by Veronica Anne Salinas with Amanda Gutiérrez, from 2:00–4:00 PM. This is the third event in our 2025 Summer Soundwalks in the Parks series, presented in partnership with the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks program.
To register for in-person attendance, please RSVP at https://forms.gle/BKTAxCgokcRG7gRS9. The event is open to all and no tickets are required.
To attend virtually, please register in advance with Registration Link. You’ll receive a confirmation email with the Zoom details after registering.
To become a new MSAE member or renew your membership, visit our Membership page.
Stay tuned for the agenda to be shared soon!
Have an idea to share? Contact MSAE President, Eric Leonardson.

Veronica Anne Salinas with Amanda Gutiérrez: Walking as an Infra-Antenna
2025-07-23 19:00 - 20:30 | West Ridge Nature Park, 5801 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL, United States
Please note that we have rescheduled this soundwalk to a new date of Wednesday, July 23 from 7-8:30pm.

In this soundwalk, the radio becomes a symbolic tool of spectral communication to connect with the living and the dead, crossing borders, time zones, and metaphysical dimensions. The soundwalk will begins and ends in West Ridge Nature Preserve, where a sound incantation will be performed in collaboration with sound artists Veronica Anne Salinas and Amanda Gutiérrez.

The artists write, “FM incantations act as a metaphor for enacting magic technology, emitting radio transmissions and receiving electromagnetic waves from/to the infraworld, future entities, and past ancestors through resonant signals. Sound is translated through the radio as ceremonial practice for communal listening, with our bodies as antennas to the sacred airwaves.” West Ridge Nature Park is located at 5801 N Western Ave. Click here for accessibility information.

RSVP here: https://forms.gle/t7f483uqvSAjmPYM7

Veronica Anne Salinas is a sound artist, educator, writer, and Deep Listener based between Chicago, IL and Texas. Their sonic research explores compositions, soundwalks, multichannel audio, improvisation, text scores, field recording, and performance. Engaging with themes of perceptual shifts, meditations, slow processes, intersections of visual and sonic landscapes, Deep Listening practices, and ecologies, they use ambient, drone, and noise music to attune to subtle transformations in environment and perception. She has studied at the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and holds an MFA in Sound from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a co-founder and artistic director of Tierras Sonidas, an annual sound art festival in Marfa, TX, a facilitator at Campbient, and currently serves on the board of directors for the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology.

Amanda Gutiérrez explores the experience of political listening and gender studies by focusing on soundwalking and radio practices. She is currently developing the academic aspect of her work as a Ph.D. candidate in Arts and Humanities at Concordia University. Her artistic experience has been showcased internationally in art residencies like FACT in Liverpool, UK, ZKM in Germany, TAV in Taiwan, and Bolit Art Center in Spain. Additionally, her sound artwork has been exhibited at various international venues, including The Liverpool Biennale in 2012, Harvestworks in NYC, SBC Gallery, Undefined Radio in Montreal, Errant Bodies Studio Press in Berlin, POP Montreal, the City of Women Festival, and the To)POT Festival in Ljubljana, as well as the ENSEMS Music Festival in Valencia, Sur Aural in Bolivia, and the Tsonami Sound Festival in Chile.

Graphics by http://madelinestocking.com/

Josh Rios - Pass the Aux: A Collective Sharing and Listening Session
2025-08-10 16:00 - 17:30 | Unity Park, 2636 N Kimball Ave, Chicago, IL, United States
“What are we listening to these days, and why?” Prompted by this and other questions, Josh Rios invites you to this all-ages gathering to share and reflect on music in an open, collective setting. Think of it as a live mix-tape, where everyone gets the aux cord. Together, we’ll explore how music offers resistance, pleasure, and curiosity—then each person will play a song of their choice through a shared PA system. We’ll take time to talk about the songs: “Why this song and why now? Who wrote and performed it? What stands out about it, historically or personally? How does it operate politically? What is the story of our encounter with a given song?” The event will wrap with a group conversation about what it means to share music in public and how shared listening can help us connect. Participants are encouraged to be mindful of language in their selections; this is a space guided by community respect, not censorship.
We will meet at Unity Park, 2636 N Kimball Ave, at the pergola. Please note the rain date for this event is Sunday, August 17, 2025 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
RSVP here: https://forms.gle/AzSECxouu9ANCfGt7

Josh Rios is a faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he teaches courses in social theory and research-based practice. As a media artist, writer, and educator, he examines the histories, presents, and futurities of Latinx subjects, highlighting intercultural contact and co-belonging. His work with Sonic Insurgency Research Collective has been featured at the Counterpublic Triennial (St. Louis, MO), the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA (Portland, ME), the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis, MO), the Vincent Price Art Museum (Los Angeles, CA), and Locust Projects (Miami, FL). Recent work includes the production of a glossary of terms for Creative Times HQ as part of their year-long inquiry, Sonic Commons (New York, NY).
Graphics by http://madelinestocking.com/

Deirdre Harrison with Katie Mazzini: Tune In, Take Turns
2025-08-23 10:30 - 12:00 | 5701 W Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL 60644
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. We will meet at the Columbus Refectory, 5701 W Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL 60644. 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.

Graphics by http://madelinestocking.com/

Eric Leonardson with Negin Almassi: Singing Insects Soundwalk
2025-09-06 18:30 - 19:30 | Garden of the Phoenix Parking Lot, 1686 E Hayes Dr, Chicago, 60649, United States
The Singing Insects Monitoring Program is a community science effort to familiarize people with common sounds of singing insects in the Chicago region, including grasshoppers, cicadas, katydids, and crickets. Building on Dr. Carl Strang’s work documenting the many species within these four types across 22 counties, the purpose of the project is to collect local baseline data and help people keep their ears perked for unusual and common insect calls each summer. Data collected is publicly available to anyone who wishes to use it, and walks are conducted informally site by site. Key to this is listening. To enjoy and to learn how to identify these insects by their “songs,” Eric Leonardson prepares us for a soundwalk through engaging “Ear Cleaning” exercises with directions from naturalist Negin Almassi. We will meet at Garden of the Phoenix Parking Lot, 1686 E Hayes Dr. Click here for accessibility information. Please note the rain date for this event is Sunday, September 28, 2025 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM.

RSVP here: https://forms.gle/vDW8mgvk2cy9TWZX9

Eric Leonardson, a Chicago-based audio artist, is co-founder and President of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and Vice-President of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. He is a Professor Adjunct in Art and Technology/Sound Practices at SAIC. As a performer, composer, sound designer, and inventor, he performs internationally and promotes acoustic ecology, connecting communities through sound, listening, and the environment.

Negin Almassi, a local naturalist, teaches people how to identify insects by their song for the Singing Insects Monitoring Program, a community science effort involving recording songs of insects. She serves as the Resource Management Training Specialist for the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Negin also plays kamancheh, a spiked fiddle originating from Southwest Asia, in University of Chicago’s Middle East Music Ensemble.

Graphics by http://madelinestocking.com/

World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) Annual General Meeting
2025-09-20 08:00 - 09:00
Sep 20, 2025 08:00 AM (CDT). All members are invited to participate!

We warmly invite all members to participate in this online event: an important opportunity to connect with the global acoustic ecology community, reflect on the past year’s activities, confirm our affiliate’s new Board members and leaders who shape the future of the Forum.A draft agenda is available here. Please contact secretary (at) wfae.net for any additions to General Business. Register your attendance on the link below:

Eliza Fernand: Exquisite Beach Corpse
2025-09-28 14:00 - 16:00
Join interdisciplinary artist Eliza Fernand for a deep listening scavenger hunt in which we will interrogate our individual and collective value sets and question the usefulness of classification. Participants will enact body-based research, listening to the beach environment through a microphone, then capturing a collection of sounds in a relay game based on the surrealist drawing game, Exquisite Corpse. In this game and other versions of it, multiple people contribute portions of a drawing or a text without knowledge of the prior person’s contribution, leading to the revealing of a poetic end-product that relies on collective assembly.

We will meet at the point where Lunt ends at the beach park and practice listening together before forming six groups to explore the sonic landscape of the park blocks of Pratt, Farwell, Morse, Lunt, Greenleaf, and Estes. We will end by listening to the collective soundscapes in the Loyola Beach Field House, everyone will have the option to receive copies of the recordings via email.

RSVP here to join, maximum 24 participants: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdlyR1Bqp_HDd-gIizv6AJmSBK12et5eBrC6dJ4sLg8JfaF2g/viewform?usp=dialog

Eliza Fernand is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculptural disciplines as well as video and sound. They run a toll-free hotline at 1-833-NATR-XXX and occasionally perform noise music under the name Spooky Sounds Band. A professor of first-year courses at SAIC, sculpture at ChiArts, and queer quilting workshops in their Rogers Park studio, Eliza sees teaching and co-learning as a large part of their creative practice.

Location: Loyola Beach, 1102 W Lunt Ave

(meet at the south end of the parking lot)

Crabtree Ecotones Soundwalk
2025-10-11 16:00 - 17:30 | Crabtree Nature Center and Forest Preserve District of Cook County, 3 Stover Road, Barrington, Illinois, 60010
Join artist, educator, and Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology President Eric Leonardson on a unique soundwalk to engage listening and sound-making. Ecotones are transitional areas between different ecosystems, or plant communities, where species from both communities can coexist and interact. They often exhibit increased biodiversity due to the blending of habitats and unique environmental conditions created by the merging ecosystems.

We will learn about how plants and migrating animals, wind and water give their voice to what our eyes cannot see. Walk will last approximately 45 minutes and conclude with a reflective discussion.We will learn about how plants and migrating animals, wind and water give their voice to what our eyes cannot see. Walk will last approximately 45 minutes and conclude with a reflective discussion.

Rachel Epp Buller - Walking to Listen: Climate Moves
2025-11-15 10:00 - 11:30 | Newton Public Library, 223 E. 7th Street, Newtown, Kansas, 67114, United States
What are the sounds of Newton? How do sounds change as one season gives way to another? What sounds represent life here in 2025, and how might Newton sound different in 2050? Let’s go for a walk, listen to what is happening now, and imagine life here in the future. Led by Dr. Rachel Epp Buller.

Registration is required, and space is limited! Use the form here to sign up: https://newtonplks.libcal.com/event/15347623

Saturday, November 15, 2025

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM CT

Newton Public Library, 223 E 7th St, Newton, KS 67114

Plan to dress for the weather. In case of rain, we’ll adapt and do some listening together indoors. Our route will be mobility device- and wheelchair-accessible.

Dr. Rachel Epp Buller is a visual and sound artist who uses walking as a creative method and teaching strategy in her classes at Bethel College.

Teens, Let's go for a Soundwalk with Dr. Rachel Epp Buller
2025-11-17 16:00 - 17:00 | Newton Public Library, 223 E 7th St, Newton, KS 67114 , Newton, Kansas, 67114, United States
What are the sounds of Newton? How did Newton sound different 100 years ago, and how might this place sound different in the future? In this activity, we’ll go on a short walk to listen together, gather some sound recordings, and then work on designing a walk for other people to experience the sounds of Newton.

Short bio: Dr. Rachel Epp Buller is a visual and sound artist who loves to go for walks as a way to get to know people and places. She teaches at Bethel College. This project is supported with funding from the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology.

Monday, November 174:00 – 5:00PM CTNewton Public Library, 223 E. 7th St., Newton, Kansas 67114

Meet at the Intrust room. This event is for teens ages 10-18 years old. Registration is required. Register at: https://newtonplks.libcal.com/event/15175029
