Kali Malone
Organ Concert

Kali Malone presented an early morning organ concert on Aspen Chapel’s newly restored pipe organ. The performance featured the US premiere of Concentric Circles of The Choirs of Angels—a new work commissioned by the Vatican in honor of Hildegard von Bingen for the 2026 Venice Art Biennale—alongside selected works from her expansive organ repertoire, including pieces from her critically acclaimed albums The Sacrificial Code (2019) and All Life Long (2024).

Working primarily with pipe organ, chamber ensembles, and electroacoustic formats, Malone composes within slowly evolving harmonic cycles that extend perception and dissolve conventional notions of duration. Drawing on experimental reinterpretations of historical tuning systems and polyphonic traditions, her work opens a space for sustained listening, where subtle shifts in harmony, time, and texture invite reflection and introspection. Attuned to the chapel’s ecclesiastical architecture, specifically designed to mediate spiritual reflection and collective emotional experience, the performance drew on how the site itself conditions acts of listening within it.

Preceding the performance, poets Kaveh Akbar and Paige Lewis read in call-and-response, their voices unfolding in relation to each other and the atmosphere of the building on a high alpine morning. Extending the program’s contemplative register with incantatory intensity and extended, meditative arcs, both poets engaged questions of spirituality and the limits of expression, navigating the tension between the ineffable and the everyday.

Kali Malone is a composer and musician whose practice centers on pipe organ, chamber ensembles, and electroacoustic formats. Her compositions unfold through evolving harmonic cycles that draw out latent emotional resonances, creating spaces for reflection, contemplation, and deep listening. Through experimental reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic techniques and historical tuning systems, Malone transforms traditional compositional structures into portals for new experiences of harmony, duration, and introspection. Malone’s acclaimed albums—including The Sacrificial Code (2019), Living Torch (2022), Does Spring Hide Its Joy (2023), and All Life Long (2024)—have established her as a leading voice in contemporary experimental music. She has performed internationally at institutions and festivals including Lincoln Center, Fondazione Prada, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Southbank Centre, Berghain, Unsound Festival, and the Venice Biennale. Alongside her solo work, Malone maintains an active collaborative practice with artists across experimental music and sound art.

Organ Concert was made possible by the Tisch Discovery Series. The Tisch Discovery Series—a dynamic selection of commissions, performances, and dialogues presented throughout the week—was made possible through a generous gift from Steve Tisch and Jamie Tisch.

Restoration of the Aspen Chapel Pipe Organ was carried out by Dan Dufford and the wonderful team at Pipe Dreams Organ Service.

Special thanks to Regina Greene; Peggy Burke, Reverend Nicholas Vesey, and the team at Aspen Chapel; and Mark Herman (Herman Organ Company) and John Grunow (Grunow Pipe Organs) for their expertise and guidance regarding the organ.

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Kali Malone, Organ Concert, 2026. Photo: Elyse Mertz.