Craig Taborn
Craig Taborn is a pianist and composer whose work spans jazz, improvisation, contemporary music, electronic music, and experimental performance. Taborn is the University of Chicago’s 2026–27 Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence, where he will lead a season-long residency through UChicago Presents and the Jazz@Logan series. Over a career spanning more than twenty-five years, he has performed and recorded with artists including Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Evan Parker, Vijay Iyer, Kris Davis, and Nicole Mitchell. His work encompasses solo piano, trio, electronic, and collaborative projects, and he is known for an expansive approach to composition and improvisation that draws across musical traditions.
Craig Taborn and Ian White on the creative legacies of the Black Arts Movement.
Join us at the Logan Center for the Arts for a unique exploration of the relationship between visual art and music, as two luminous artists discuss the making and re-making of artistic inheritance, influence, and creative reasoning.
This special program is presented in collaboration with Logan Center Exhibitions, UChicago Department of Music, and UChicago Presents.
Pianist and composer Craig Taborn joins Ian White, son of artist Charles White, for a considered exploration of the ways Black artistic legacies are made and remade across mediums. Taborn, a 2025 MacArthur Fellow whose trio is the 2026-27 Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence at the UChicago, will use excerpts from his compositions to discuss the ideas and theories of his creative process. He’ll draw connections between his work and Charles White Across Media: A Visual Archive, on view in Logan Center Exhibitions this fall. Taborn and Ian White will place Charles White’s art within a broader fabric of Black artistic and intellectual history, exploring how artists metabolize histories of struggle, creativity, and collective memory into individual expression. The conversation will be moderated by Michael Allemana, Director of the Jazz Ensemble at UChicago.
Experience a unique encounter between visual art and music, as two artists articulate the creative reasoning behind their work and reflect on creative inheritance.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Speaker(s): Craig Taborn, Ian White, and Michael Allemana