Nicole Mitchell

Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning flutist, composer, bandleader, and educator. She has been an integral part of the avant-jazz and experimental music scenes since the early '90s. She is also a former president of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). On her first three albums with her Black Earth Ensemble (Vision Quest, 2001; Afrika Rising, 2002; Hope, Future and Destiny, 2004), she garnered attention from avant-jazz aficionados. 2007's Black Unstoppable was released on Chicago's Delmark label. These early dates established Mitchell as one of the more original flutists and conceptualists in jazz and improvised music. With 2007's Xenogenesis Suite, she revealed the first of several works of Afrofuturism, and has further expanded her sound with 2010's Intergalactic Beings, 2016's Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds, 2020's Earthseed (with Lisa E. Harris), and 2024's Bamako*Chicago Sound System with kora player Ballaké Sissoko.