AACM Celebrates 60 Years with a Formidable Crew of Jazz and Creative Musician Titans at the Walker

“A uniquely sublime musical adventure.” —Paris Move 

The Walker Art Center’s 2025-26 Performing Arts Season opens with a monumental celebration marking the 60th anniversary of the influential AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). The concert brings together leading members of the creative music collective, including legendary composer/trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist/composer Amina Claudine Myers.

For this remarkable engagement, Smith and Myers will perform their acclaimed recent recording, Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens—a musical tribute to the people, monuments, and spaces of New York City’s expansive park. Minneapolis’ beloved multi-instrumentalist/composer Douglas R. Ewart opens the evening with a cross-generational sextet featuring AACM members from Chicago and the Twin Cities. As Smith describes, the two ensembles will “create a vast musical universe where deep feeling, listening, and peaceful contemplations will be the keynote for Love.”

Featuring:
Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet) & Amina Claudine Myers (piano, organ) duo

Douglas R. Ewart & Inventions:
Douglas R. Ewart (composition, poetry, electronics, didgeridoo, winds, percussions), Melvin Gibbs (bass), Mankwe Ndosi (vocals, little instruments), Lela Pierce (choreography, improvisational dance), Davu Seru (drums, percussion), Edward Wilkerson Jr. (didgeridoo, winds)

AACM@60! 
Saturday, September 13, 7:30 pm
McGuire Theater

ABOUT WADADA LEO SMITH 
Wadada Leo Smith is a trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, creative composer/performer, and author born in Leland, Mississippi, in 1941. He began his musical journey immersed in the traditions of the South, composing his first piece at age twelve and performing with Delta Blues and other traditional bands by thirteen. He furthered his musical education through his stepfather, composer/guitarist Alex “Little Bill” Wallace, the U.S. Military band program, Sherwood School of Music, and Wesleyan University. Smith defines his work as “Creative Music,” which is rooted in spiritual harmony and the unification of social and cultural issues. He also developed Ankhrasmation, a symbolic, image-based language for performers or musicians, which has been exhibited in major American museums and earned him the Hammer Museum’s Mohn Award for Career Achievement in 2016.

A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Ten Freedom Summers, a collection inspired by the civil rights movement, Smith has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, an honorary doctorate from CalArts, and the 2019 UCLA Medal. He was also named DownBeat Magazine’s Composer of the Year in 2013 and earned recognition as Jazz Artist and Trumpeter of the Year in 2016. A prolific recording artist, his work is featured on over 100 albums as a leader or co-leader, with recent releases including Wadada Leo Smith String Quartets Nos. 1-12 and The Emerald Duets. He is also a member of the historic Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

ABOUT AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS 
Amina Claudine Myers is a distinguished pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, master improvisationalist, actress, and educator whose career spans national and international stages across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North America. Her musical journey began in her pre-teens, directing church choirs and performing gospel and rhythm and blues, before studying concert music at Philander Smith College. After moving to Chicago in the 1960s, she taught in public schools and became a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1966, where she began composing for voice and instruments. In 1976, Myers moved to New York City, expanding her work into theater as an actress and composer for Off-Broadway productions, even serving as assistant musical director for AIN’T MISBEHAVIN‘ prior to its Broadway debut.

Myers has recorded and performed with a wide array of renowned artists, including Archie Shepp, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra, and Lester Bowie, and has released eleven recordings under her own name, showcasing her diverse range from solo piano and voice to instrumental trios and vocal quartets. Her larger works include compositions for chamber orchestra, pipe organ and percussion, and staged pieces incorporating various artistic disciplines. A recipient of numerous grants and awards, including from the National Endowment for the Arts and Meet The Composer, Amina Claudine Myers was inducted into both the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame (2001) and the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame (2010), recognizing her significant contributions to music. She continues to perform original works of jazz, blues, gospel, spirituals, and improvisations, particularly for the pipe organ, and conducts workshops and residencies globally.

ABOUT DOUGLAS R. EWART 
Douglas R. Ewart, perhaps best known as a composer, improviser, sculptor, and maker of masks and instruments, is also a distinguished educator, lecturer, arts organization consultant, and visionary. Throughout an award-winning and widely-acclaimed 40-year career, Ewart has woven his remarkably broad gifts into a single sensibility, creating projects in diverse media that encourage and celebrate the wholeness of individuals in culturally active communities—an antidote to the divisions afflicting modern life. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1946, he immigrated to Chicago in 1963. His extensive global travels and interactions with diverse peoples have consistently affirmed his view of the world as an interdependent entity, exemplified by his 1987 U.S.-Japan Creative Arts Fellowship, where he studied traditional Buddhist shakuhachi flute and modern Japanese culture while also performing publicly.

Ewart’s determination to spread his perspective inspires his often-multidisciplinary works, which encourage artist-audience interactions. This philosophy also underpins his teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has taught since 1990, and his service on advisory boards for institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts. As former chairman of the internationally renowned Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Ewart maintains several musical ensembles, releasing music on his own label, Aarawak Records. Consistently seeking new methods of transformation, he creates and revises musical forms, such as his perpetually evolving suite, Music from the Bamboo Forest, which incorporates handmade instruments and audience participation. Beyond sound, his art extends to unique wind and percussion instruments, sculptures, sound sculptures, and handcrafted masks, which have been exhibited at major institutions. All these elements converge in Crepuscule, a substantial collective composition and annual event in Chicago, uniting diverse musical groups, dancers, artists, and activists in a unique improvisational and inclusive performance. Ewart is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Bush Artists Fellowship and Mayor Harold Washington’s Outstanding Artist Award, and he has performed and lectured globally.

ABOUT AACM (ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CREATIVE MUSICIANS) 
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) was founded in Chicago in 1965 by a collective of musicians dedicated to fostering a creative community and new platforms for musical experimentation. The AACM’s mission is to uplift humanity and enhance cultural understanding through the celebration of Great Black Music. It strives to cultivate young musicians in the practice of creative music and to push the boundaries of contemporary music through composition and improvisation, all while providing an environment that encourages the development of its member-artists.

TICKETS  
Ordering tickets is easy: visit walkerart.org/tickets or call 612.375.7600. Prices include all applicable fees. Box Office is open Wednesday–Sunday and one hour before performances

ACCESSIBILITY   
For more information about accessibility, visit our Access page.
For questions on accessibility or to request additional accommodations, call 612.375.7564 or email access@walkerart.org.

STUDENTS COME EARLY   
Students own the rush line! Get in line an hour before showtime for $15 rush tickets. One ticket per person with student ID. (Some restrictions apply.)

GET TOGETHER   
Experience these performances in a group of 10 or more people and save 15% on tickets. Purchase group tickets online, over the phone, or in person. The discount is automatically applied at checkout on orders of 10 or more tickets to the same performance.

MEMBERS DO MORE   
Become a member and enjoy a 20% discount on performance tickets, receive unlimited free gallery admission, and more. Call 612.375.7655 or visit walkerart.org/membership.

ABOUT THE WALKER ART CENTER 
The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. Its multiacre campus includes 65,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater and Walker Cinema, and ample green space that connects with the adjoining Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, is one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States and home to the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recognized for its ambitious program and growing collection of more than 16,000 works, the Walker embraces emerging art forms and amplifies the work of artists from the Twin Cities and from across the country and the globe. Its broad spectrum of offerings makes it a lively and welcoming hub for artistic expression, creative innovation, and community connection.

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The Walker Art Center’s Performing Arts programs and commissions are made possible by donors and Producers’ Council members: AJT Fund, Christina Evans and Weston Hoard; Nor Hall and Roger Hale; Judith Brin Ingber and Jerome Ingber; Neal Jahren; the Jerome Foundation; King’s Fountain/Barbara Watson Pillsbury; Knox Foundation: Susanne Lilly Hutcheson, Zenas Hutcheson IV, Henry Hutcheson, and Perrin Hutcheson; Sarah Lutman; Emily Maltz; the David and Leni Moore Family Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; National Performance Network; Rebecca Rand; Lois and John Rogers; the Serendipitous Leverage Fund; Therese Sexe and David Hage; Elizabeth and Mike Sweeney; John L. Thomson; Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation; Sue and Jim Westerman; and Frances and Frank* Wilkinson.

*deceased