Nick Dunston premieres Near of Kin, a new song cycle about family—chosen and inherited, contemporary and ancestral, loving and damaging. Prompted by his own experiences, it takes its title from novelist Octavia Butler, whose writing returns to kinship and power.

With Julian Otis and Ben Lamar Gay on vocals, Gay also on cornet and electronics, and a string trio of Caroline Jesalva, Tomeka Reid, and Dunston.

Nick Dunston (b.1996, Washington, D.C.) is a composer, improviser, and sound artist active in the New York and Berlin experimental music scenes. His work spans large-ensemble composition, improvisation, and multimedia projects, often integrating electronics and live processing.

Dunston has received commissions from Wet Ink Ensemble, Bang on a Can, JACK Quartet, Gaudeamus Festival, A L’ARME Festival, Ekmeles, and others, and has collaborated as a performer with artists including Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Moor Mother, Darius Jones, Lucrecia Dalt, Joy Guidry, Son Lux, Craig Taborn, Dave Douglas, Allison Miller, Anna Webber, and Amirtha Kidambi. In 2019 he received a Van Lier Fellowship from Roulette, supporting the creation of the trans-media song cycle La Operación, the double bass quintet piece The Floor is Lava!, and his debut studio album Atlantic Extraction.

Recent recordings include Spider Season (2022) and the Afro-surrealist-anti-opera COLLA VOCE (Out Of Your Head Records, 2024). Dunston’s performing can also be heard on the score to the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). He has presented artist talks at institutions including the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, the University of Iowa, and Stony Brook University. Dunston was nominated for the Deutscher Jazzpreis in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and with Cansu Tanrikulu won the SWR Jazz Prize in 2024.

Presented in partnership with the Graham Foundation