Brittany will perform a largely improvised solo bass set with the aid of balloons and a tiny glockenspiel. Featuring interspersed melodies by Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, and original compositions.

This performance and interview are presented in the ESS garden, and will be premiered online on ESS’s YouTube.

The OPTION series is curated by Ken Vandermark, Lily Finnegan, and Andrew Clinkman.
About Brittany Karlson

Bassist Brittany Karlson is an adventurous musician with roots in jazz, improvised, and Appalachian music. She has performed across the USA, Canada, and Europe in a variety of ensemble settings, including improvised trio Letter Castle and American old-time/bluegrass/Swedish string band The Goodbye Girls. She has performed at the Newport Folk Festival, Tranzac, the Lilypad, the Stone, Stockholm Folk Festival, Kennedy Center, and myriad clubs, restaurants, houses, apartments, basements, and abandoned bear cages across the US. When performing solo, Karlson improvises, performs original songs under the moniker Karl, or ducks behind her bass to perform a lighthearted puppet show-style act with many props. Karlson is a dedicated music educator, teaching early childhood music classes through students in their elder years. Karlson is an AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher. She grew up in the Chicagoland area and recently moved from Boston to New York.
About OPTION

OPTION is an ongoing music salon curated by Chicago musicians Andrew Clinkman, Lily Finnegan, and Ken Vandermark and presented by Experimental Sound Studio. Its programming explores contemporary perspectives on improvisation and composition in a ‘salon’ format, enabling local, national, and international artists to publicly discuss their practice and ideas as well as perform.
Parking

Street parking can be found easily around ESS on streets such as W. Thorndale. There are three parking spots directly in front of ESS on Ravenswood. On weekends, parking is also available along the front of Weber Furniture; please do not block the garage doors. Behind ESS through the alley, there are also two parking spots which we are happy to reserve for anyone with accessibility needs. Please get in touch with info@ess.org to reserve a spot.

During the OPTION series this summer, diagonal parking is available in the alley directly south of ESS and Weber Furniture Service.
Accessibility

ESS has wheelchair seating and accessible bathrooms on both floors.

Please note that once on one floor, there is no ADA-accessible path inside the building to switch between floors; you will have to exit the building and reenter from the respective floor entrance. Our front entrance on Ravenswood leads you to our 1st floor (Audible Gallery, Studio A, Live Room), while our alley entrance leads you to the basement/garden (garden shows, Creative Audio Archive, Studio B).

To reserve accessible seating or parking, request other accommodations, or ask us any accessibility-related questions, please email info@ess.org.

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Tags: Brittany Karlson Chicago, Edgewater, ess, Experimental Sound Studio, OPTION: Brittany Karlson