Nicole Mitchell in solo and group interplay with Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, featuring Gerald Cleaver, Tomeka Reid, Angelica Sanchez, Luke Stewart, and Victor Vieira Branco

March 21-22, 2025
Doors at 7 PM, show at 8 PM
The Capri
$30

Ballroom Marfa presents Utopian Futures, featuring world renowned flutist, conceptualist, composer Nicole Mitchell in solo and group interplay with a special configuration of Rob Mazurek’s critically acclaimed Exploding Star Orchestra, premiering live on March 21 and 22, 2025, at The Capri. 

Nicole Mitchell, renowned for her innovative and visionary approach to music, invites audiences to explore themes of utopia and imaginative futures through her artistry. Originally inspired by a joint commission from the Chicago Cultural Center and Jazz Institute of Chicago, Rob Mazurek founded the Exploding Star Orchestra in 2005 to investigate the city’s avant-garde musical traditions. He brought together a group representing the diversity of the city’s contemporary creative music scene including musicians from Chicago’s North, West, and South-sides, from the burgeoning post rock scene to the highly influential AACM and Northside Improvisation Scene, for a performance at Millennium Park’s Frank Gehry-designed concert hall in Chicago. 

The Orchestra has since included musicians from around the world and has premiered 12 extended suites since its inception. The latest release “Live at the Adler Planetarium” on International Anthem Recording Co., was released September of 2024. The group has featured a multitude of leading figures in creative music, including Bill Dixon, Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Anderson, Nicole Mitchell, Craig Taborn, Tomeka Reid, Jeff Parker, Damon Locks, Angelica Sanchez, Chad Taylor, Gerald Cleaver, Mikel Patrick Avery and many more. 2025 is the 20th anniversary of this shape shifting visionary ensemble.