Ken Vandermark & Damon Locks
Ken Vandermark is an improviser, composer, saxophonist/clarinetist, curator, and writer.
Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician.
Ken and Damone collaborate as a duo for the second time in their careers.
Watch the Performance
Ken Vandermark
Ken Vandermark (born 1964) is an improviser, composer, saxophonist/clarinetist, curator, and writer. In 1989 he moved to Chicago from Boston and has worked continuously from the early 1990s onward, both as a performer and organizer in North America and Europe, recording in a large array of contexts with many internationally renowned musicians. In 1999 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in music.
Damon Locks and Ken Vandermark collaborate as a duo for the second time in their careers. The material created will be based on their collective histories, which include decades of work with a variety of musical aesthetics and artists, which have taken place in hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings, at home and abroad. This performance will be unique, and focused on the spontaneous interaction and creation.
Above left photo of Ken Vandermark by Cristina Marx
Damon Locks
Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician. He teaches art with Prisons and Neighborhood Arts/Education Project at Stateville Correctional Center. He is a recipient of the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Achievement Award in the Arts as well as a 3Arts Awardee. He is a Soros Justice Media Fellow. Damon leads the group Black Monument Ensemble and is a founding member of the group The Eternals. He is also the primary vocalist in Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra.