Envisioned as an ongoing performance and discussion series, Gray Sound represents a chance for artists and the broader community to tease the boundaries of sound—when it moves from voice to music, from a recognizable tune to noise.

In January 2020, Gray Sound kicked off with MUSIC'S OVER: Listening with Peter Ablinger, a 9-day residency with the experimental composer. Ablinger's first visit to Chicago threaded talks, composition seminars, and experimental discussions in between multiple performance events featuring world premieres and internationally renowned ensembles. From April - July 2020, Gray Sound presented a weekly music-and-sound streaming series, GRAY SOUND SESSIONS, featuring virtual concerts, happenings, experiments, a playing-around with form and platform during quarantine. 

For the 2020-21 season of Gray Sound, Seth Parker Woods curated a cohort of artists whose creative practices explored multiple convergences of the themes of identity, place, ownership, environment, noi(z)e and care run, and whose latest output, either in text/sound formatted interviews or new performative work, was presented online to our global audience for reflection and alignment.