CCAM Sound Art Series: Ka Baird

The CCAM Sound Art Series is centered around the sonic arts in its many forms. It presents a diversity of works by guest artists that investigate sound through musical performance, installation art, performance art, or any cross-pollination of these and other approaches, followed by discussions with the audience.

Ka Baird is a musician, performer, composer, and sound designer based in New York City. They are known for their live performances, which include extended voice and microphone techniques combined with electronics and psychoacoustic interplay of flutes and other woodwinds. They create a present-tense sound with a vigorous, ritualistic delivery that seeks extreme release through physical exertion and psychic extension. They have worked/collaborated with many other musicians, artists, filmmakers, and choreographers, both in structured compositions and in their dedicated practice of improvisation and interdisciplinary work.

They have released over 25 albums, including both solo and collaborative releases, and have performed their work extensively throughout the US and EU/UK. Recent national and international engagements have included performances at Unsound Festival (Krakow, PL), Lampo (Chicago, IL), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL), MoMA PS1 (Queens, NY), Issue Project Room (Brooklyn, NY), The Kitchen (NYC), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia, PA), TUSK Festival (Newcastle, UK), Incubate (Tilburg, NL), KRAAK (Brussels, BE), Le Guess Who (Utrecht, NL), and the Festival Of Endless Gratitude (Copenhagen, DK). They have been artist in residence at We Jazz Festival (Helsinki, FI), Sonoscopia (Porto, PT), Inkonst (Malmo, SE), Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago, IL), and Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY). They have been a recipient of the Foundation of Contemporary Art’s Emergency Grant, a Jerome Foundation Artist in Residence at Roulette Intermedium, and is currently a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow through 2023-25.