The Nova Linea Musica Experience

By Michele Mohammadi

What happens when you put a world premiere, a composer willing to talk about it, and a room full of curious people in the same space? Something you can’t get anywhere else.

People ask me all the time what a Nova Linea Musica concert is actually like. I could talk about our mission, our commitment to new music, the caliber of our artists. But the best answer I’ve ever heard came from an audience member after a recent concert:

“Thank the composer and soloist for letting me be a part of something so special.”

Not “thank them for performing for me” or “thank them for entertaining me.” Thank them for letting me be a part of it.

That shift, from spectator to participant, is what we build every concert around.

What the Evening Looks Like

Every NLM concert begins with a pre-concert conversation at 5:45. This isn’t a lecture. It’s an informal, open exchange where the composers and performers talk candidly about the music you’re about to hear: what inspired it, how it was made, what they were trying to capture. When the concert starts at 6:30, you’re not hearing the music cold. You’re hearing it with context, with the composer’s voice still in your ear, with a sense of what to listen for.

The difference this makes is something we’ve seen again and again. When Stacy Garrop described the aspen trees of Rocky Mountain National Park before the NLM Piano Trio performed Under the shimmering aspens, listeners could feel the stillness and the quaking she described in every note. When Shawn Okpebholo shared the narration and imagery behind Smooth | Pluck | Whirl before Rabia Brooke’s performance, one audience member told us afterward:

“What an honor to hear from Shawn before the world premiere and then on the fiddle!”

That’s the connection we’re after. The composer shares the story. The performer brings it to life. And the audience, having been invited into the creative process, hears the music differently than they would anywhere else.

When the Music Lands

You know a piece has landed when the room changes. We’ve seen it at every concert we’ve presented, from the Dover Quartet performing Jessie Montgomery and Conrad Tao at our launch, to the Black Oak Ensemble premiering Errollyn Wallen’s Making Hay, to Rabia Brooke’s electrifying premiere of Okpebholo’s Smooth | Pluck | Whirl, to the world premiere of JaRon Brown’s commission for Third Coast Percussion at a sold-out Gottlieb Hall.

The responses are immediate and visceral. After a recent world premiere, a college graduate said simply: “Electric!” Others told us “It was on fire!” and “Delightfully intense!” One listener said, “With it, time just flew by. Only great music does that for me.” A family asked, “When can we hear it again?”

These aren’t critics writing for a publication. These are people who came to hear something new and walked away moved by it. In two seasons, we’ve commissioned and premiered works by Shawn Okpebholo, Stacy Garrop, Errollyn Wallen, Elizabeth Younan, Paul Novak, Gabriella Smith, JaRon Brown, and Jennifer Higdon, among others. Every one of those premieres produced moments like these, because the conditions were right: the right artists, the right music, and a willing audience in an intimate space.

“An intimate, inspiring evening that made the music feel newly alive.”

After the Last Note

Our concerts don’t end when the music stops. After every performance, we host a chef-curated reception where audience members meet the artists and composers directly. No velvet ropes, no backstage separation. The same people who just performed walk into the same room, and the conversation continues.

This is where you might find yourself talking to Jennifer Higdon about the piece she just heard performed for the first time. Or asking JaRon Brown what it felt like to hear Third Coast Percussion bring his commission to life. Or telling an artist that you could feel the connection between them and the composer through the music. One audience member put it exactly that way: “I could tell that [the artists] had an indelible connection through the work.”

Another listener told us, “Shawn’s description of narration and imagery in creating the work really resonated with me.” That’s not someone being polite. That’s someone who was genuinely moved and wanted the artist to know it.

“A rare chance to be close to the artists and hear works you can’t hear anywhere else.”

Subscriber, Chicago

The reception is where our mission comes to life most visibly. It’s where a first-time attendee becomes a regular. It’s where a composer hears directly from the people their music reached. It’s where the community we’re building takes shape, one conversation at a time.

You Don’t Need to Know Anything

I want to be clear about this: you do not need any background in contemporary music to come to an NLM concert. You don’t need vocabulary. You don’t need expertise. You don’t need to have heard of the composers on the program.

You just need to be open to hearing something you haven’t heard before.

The pre-concert conversation gives you everything you need to engage with the music. The intimate setting puts you close enough to feel it physically. And the reception afterward gives you a place to process it with the very people who created it.

One of our featured composers described it this way:

“Nova Linea Musica makes contemporary music feel welcoming, personal, and deeply meaningful.”

That’s what we’re building. Not a concert series where you sit in the dark and clap at the end. A place where new music feels alive, where excellence is the standard, and where everyone is invited into the conversation.

If you leave with a moment of beauty you didn’t expect, or a question that stays with you, then we’ve done our job.

Nova Linea Musica

Bringing new music to Chicago through commissions, concerts, and high-quality audiovisual recordings.

novalineamusica.org

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