LIVE
8/13 & 8/14
Thirsty Ears 2022
Thirsty Ears is Chicago’s only classical music street festival and takes place on Wilson Ave. between Ravenswood and Hermitage.
LIVE
8.15.21
Thirsty Ears Festival
LIVE
10.15.21
Relevant Tones Festival 2021
Songs About Buildings and Moods
FEATURED PRODUCTION
EXPERIENCE
Explore our upcoming
festivals / concerts
We produce a variety of festivals and concerts throughout the year designed to serve our mission of bringing musical creativity to life.
LEARN
School of music
explore our classes
The ACM School of Music teaches musical creativity along with fundamentals to students age 4 through adult in three locations in Chicago and virtually.
ABOUT
About ACM
ACM or Access Contemporary Music is a non-profit organization with the mission of bringing musical creativity to life every day. We do this through our award-winning podcast Relevant Tones, by producing concerts of music by diverse living composers, by teaching musical creativity in our ACM School of Music, through exciting multi-disciplinary festivals like Sound of Silent Film and Thirsty Ears, the Sonic Walkabout musical audio walking tours, process-based innovative collaborations like Composer Alive and digital media productions like Songs About Buildings and Moods. We commission new music for each of these programs and work with our talented musicians to bring it to life.
We commission dozens of composers every year
We produce events in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and Mexico City
We teach musical creativity to more than 300 students
News
NEWS
We Need Volunteers for Thirsty Ears
Chicago’s only classical music street festival returns to Ravenswood on August 13 and 14 but we need your help! We’re looking for volunteers to help us at the entrances, in… Read More »We Need Volunteers for Thirsty Ears
Early Bird Vendor Registration for 2022 Thirsty Ears Festival
Access Contemporary Music has been bringing ground-breaking, innovative programming to audiences for over a decade. With a focus on introducing new audiences to bold modern music in uniquely approachable settings,… Read More »Early Bird Vendor Registration for 2022 Thirsty Ears Festival