Density 2036 is Claire Chase’s ongoing project to commission new repertory for the flute. Launched in 2013, the project continues through 2036, the 100th anniversary of Edgard Varèse’s groundbreaking 1936 flute solo Density 21.5.

Here, Chase draws from more than a decade of Density with works by Marcos Balter, George Lewis, Annea Lockwood, Susie Ibarra, Pauline Oliveros, and Terry Riley. The program spans the project’s first installment through Part XII and includes a newly updated version of Lewis’s Emergent for flute and interactive electronics. This is her first Chicago performance since 2018.

Claire Chase (b.1978, Leucadia, Calif.) is a flutist, curator, and educator whose work focuses on new and experimental music. She has premiered hundreds of new works for the flute and performs as a soloist and collaborative artist internationally.

In 2001, Chase co-founded the International Contemporary Ensemble and served as its artistic director until 2017. In 2013, she launched Density 2036, an ongoing commissioning and performance project to create new repertory for the flute through 2036. Through Density and other projects, Chase has commissioned and collaborated with composers including Marcos Balter, George Lewis, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, Terry Riley, Liza Lim, Tyshawn Sorey, Pamela Z, Matana Roberts, Wang Lu, Craig Taborn, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Du Yun.

Performances include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and The Kitchen, New York; Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.; Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Ojai Music Festival, Ojai, Calif.; Herbst Theatre and Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Tokyo; Musiikkitalo, Helsinki; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Berliner Festspiele, Berlin; Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne; Turku Music Festival, Turku, Finland, and others.

Chase was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2012 and received the Avery Fisher Prize in 2017. She served as the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair at Carnegie Hall for the 2022–23 season and was music director of the 2025 Ojai Music Festival. She has received honorary doctorates from the Curtis Institute of Music and Cleveland Institute of Music.

Chase is Professor of the Practice in the Department of Music at Harvard University, where she has taught since 2017. She studied at Oberlin Conservatory with Michel Debost and lives in Brooklyn.

Presented in partnership with Corbett vs. Dempsey