Bio

Adam Zanolini is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, ethnomusicologist, writer, and arts organizer based in Chicago.  He is the Executive Director of Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago and former Associate Director of Arts for Art, presenter of the annual Vision Festival of avant-jazz in New York City. He is also co-founder of the Participatory Music Coalition and the Autophysiopsychic Millennium collective. He is an active member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and he serves on the Board of the Live the Spirit Residency, producer of the annual Englewood Jazz Festival. Adam plays flute, double bass, saxophone and other instruments. His Heliacal Rising of Sothis project is a collection of original compositions dedicated to his teacher, Kelan Phil Cohran. Adam also performs regularly with the AACM’s Great Black Music Ensemble, Sura Dupart's Sidepocket Experience, and with Angel Bat Dawid and the Brothahood. He received his PhD in music with a certificate in Africana Studies from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2016. Adam’s highest ambition is to be a community musician: to cultivate and share knowledge through music in order to help heal, strengthen, and empower the Black community.