Flutist

The Stone Residencies - Nicole Mitchell  Duo

The New School

Nicole M. Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. She is perhaps best known for her work as a flutist, having developed a unique improvisational language and having been repeatedly awarded “Top Flutist of the Year” by Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association (2010-2022). Mitchell initially emerged from Chicago’s innovative music scene in the late 90s. She started with Maia and Shanta Nurullah in Samana (the AACM's first all-woman ensemble) and as a member of the David Boykin EXPANSE. Her music celebrates contemporary African American culture. She is the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Sonic Projections and Ice Crystal, and she composes for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size, while incorporating improvisation and a wide aesthetic expression. The former first woman president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Mitchell celebrates endless possibility by “creating visionary worlds through music that bridge the familiar with the unknown.” Some of her newest work with Black Earth Ensemble explores intercultural collaborations; Bamako*Chicago, featuring Malian kora master, Ballake Sissoko and Mandorla Awakening with Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi) and Tatsu Aoki (taiko, bass, shamisen).  As a composer, Mitchell has been commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago, the Stone, the French American Jazz Exchange, Chamber Music America (New Works), the Chicago Jazz Festival, ICE, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Mitchell has performed with creative music luminaries including Craig Taborn, Roscoe Mitchell, Joelle Leandre, Anthony Braxton, Geri Allen, George Lewis, Mark Dresser, Steve Coleman, Anthony Davis, Myra Melford, Bill Dixon, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ed Wilkerson, Rob Mazurek, and Billy Childs, and Hamid Drake. She is a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award (2011), the Chicago 3Arts Award (2011), the Doris Duke Artist Award (2012) and the United States Artist Award (2020).  Mitchell is a Professor of Music at the University of Virginia, and previously taught at the University of California Irvine and the University of Pittsburgh.

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Nicole Mitchell, flute

560 Music Center

Flautist Nicole Mitchell, 2023-2024 John and Claudine Bailey Distinguished Visitor in Jazz, performs with U of T Jazz Ensembles as part of her residency at the Faculty of Music March 25 to 27.

Flautist Nicole Mitchell with U of T Jazz Ensembles

University of Toronto

Flautist Nicole Mitchell, 2023-2024 John and Claudine Bailey Distinguished Visitor in Jazz

Nicole Mitchell Masterclass: Afrofuturism

Frank Carlberg and the NEC Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra perform with flutist and Artist-in-residence, Nicole Mitchell.

Nicole M. Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. She is perhaps best known for her work as a flutist, having developed a unique improvisational language and having been repeatedly awarded “Top Flutist of the Year” by Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association (2010-2022). 

NEC Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra + Nicole Mitchell

New England Conservatory

Join us for an unforgettable evening as Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill at Harlem Stage. This sold-out event, taking place on Saturday, March 2, 2024, from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, promises to be a remarkable tribute to the jazz piano legend Andrew Hill. Located at 150 Convent Avenue, New York, this performance is a must-attend for jazz enthusiasts and admirers of Andrew Hill's groundbreaking work.

Vijay Iyer, described by The New York Times as a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker, and multicultural gateway," returns to Harlem Stage to guest curate and perform. Iyer, a composer and pianist renowned for his innovative contributions to music, leads a stellar ensemble through his arrangements of compositions by his friend and hero, Andrew Hill. The ensemble includes notable musicians such as drummer Nasheet Waits, trumpet player Milena Casado, saxophonist Mark Shim, bassists Devon Gates and Reggie Workman, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and vibraphonist Yuhan Su, among others.

Andrew Hill's album "Black Fire," released in 1964, was a visionary work that has influenced generations of progressive pianists. Iyer's reflection on "Black Fire" highlights the album's unique and indescribable essence, which continues to inspire musicians and listeners alike.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with additional support provided by the Diana King Memorial Fund presented by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation.

Don't miss this opportunity to experience the music of Andrew Hill, reimagined and celebrated by Vijay Iyer and his talented ensemble of friends. While the performance on March 2 is sold out, a waitlist is available, and a donation of $40 or more to Harlem Stage grants access to livestream this concert, allowing you to enjoy this extraordinary tribute from the comfort of your home.

Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate The Music Of Andrew Hill

Harlem Stage

The Stone at The New School serves as an artist-centric home and community for experimental and avant-garde artists, where they can perform what they want without any interference. With concerts every Tuesday through Saturday evening, The Stone at The New School continues the tradition of the landmark non-profit performance space founded in 2005 by Artistic Director John Zorn, within a greatly improved space.

The Stone at The New School Presents: Nicole Mitchell - Duo

Arnhold Hall

Following in the footsteps of AOP’s popular Brooklyn Cultural District Tours, take a tour of Fort Greene from your very own personalized tour guide–your phone. Using the PocketSights app, Fort Greene resident and local historian Ron Janoff will lead you through the neighborhood’s past and present, from the late 1800s to the thriving BAM Cultural District of today, and all the area favorites in between. Complementing your trip down memory lane will be historical images as well as songs inspired by each location, sung by contralto Nicole Mitchell.

Self-guided Brooklyn Cultural Tours App

The American Opera Project

Longtime collaborators in the jazz and improvisational music scene, flutist Nicole Mitchell and pianist Craig Taborn first played together over 20 years ago when Taborn was part of Mitchell’s Sonic Projections ensemble. In 2024, after an inspired performance at a festival where the duo was invited to imagine a legendary but undocumented meeting of Cecil Taylor and Eric Dolphy, they decided to make the duo a regular part of their busy performance schedules. Inspired by the creative spirits of Taylor and Dolphy, the two composer-instrumentalists have created a collection of pieces for the duo that foster and ignite spontaneous musical dialogues and explorations in each performance. Their shared interest in electronic treatments and textures, along with their efforts to expand the possibilities of piano and flute performance, yields a broad, diverse sonic landscape rooted in an intimate musical setting.

TECTONICS: Nicole Mitchell & Craig Taborn

City Halls and Old Fruitmarket

In the process of composing, Naomi Pinnock tapes a collection of images, quotes, and words to the wall behind her desk, describing them as “guideposts… stones to touch for the sometimes blind journey of making.” The work’s title is a quote by Amy Sillman, whose paintings unfold in layers with possibly dozens of other potential paintings beneath the surface—paths not taken, layers covered, a visceral searching for emergent shapes.

Martin Smolka also finds inspiration in the drawings, quotes, and notes kept on his desk. He writes, “I weave various pieces of paper between the strings of the talking drum,” a wooden hourglass-shaped African instrument. Among them is the ancient Seikilos Song: “As long as you're alive, shine, don't be sad at all; life is short, time asks for its due.” Guided by these words and “without censorship by my compositional intellect”, Smolka played freely at his piano, imagining meadows, streams, birds, trees, and clouds, gradually shaping what endured into delicate, mostly quiet orchestral sounds.

The BBC commission and world premiere that ends this concert is written by Nicole Mitchell, a creative flutist, composer, bandleader, and educator. Founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Ice Crystal, and Sonic Projections, Mitchell’s music celebrates African American culture while reaching across genres and integrating new ideas with moments in the legacy of jazz, gospel, experimentalism, pop, and African percussion.

Flutist

Nicole Mitchell

Events

Upcoming events

May 3, 2026

TECTONICS: Nicole Mitchell & Craig Taborn · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

May 3, 2026

TECTONICS: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 2 · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Past events

30 - 31 Jul, 2025

The Stone Residencies - Nicole Mitchell Duo · The New School College of Performing Arts

Nov 22, 2024

Nicole Mitchell, flute · Washington University in St. Louis Department of Music

Future and recently performed repertoire

Flute in Clues from the Rippling of Space-Time by Mitchell

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

About

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