2025 MacArthur Fellow Craig Taborn performs Shadow Plays, an intimate solo piano concert at Open Arts Studio on Saturday, June 27 at 7pm, presented as part of the 605A Music Series.

Born in Minneapolis and based in Brooklyn, pianist, composer, and improvising musician Craig Taborn is widely regarded as one of the most singular voices in contemporary jazz and creative music. For more than twenty-five years, Taborn has created expansive musical worlds through piano, electronics, and improvisation, moving fluidly across jazz, contemporary classical, experimental, electronic, and improvised music.

His solo piano work is celebrated for its depth, precision, and fearless exploration of sound. Shadow Plays (ECM, 2021), a fully improvised live recording, unfolds through musical landscapes of tension, mystery, and discovery.

Jen Shyu was the first artist to perform in the 605A Music Series on February 28, 2026. She a groundbreaking multilingual vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, and producer whose work moves fluidly across jazz, experimental music, theater, and global traditions. A 2025 Rome Prize winner and recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and United States Artists, Jen Shyu is celebrated for her virtuosic voice, fearless performance style, and singular artistic vision.

Born in Peoria to Taiwanese and East Timorese immigrant parents and now based in New York City, she has collaborated with leading innovators including Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, and Wadada Leo Smith. Her acclaimed recordings, including Sounds and Cries of the World and Song of Silver Geese, have been recognized by The New York Times, NPR, and other major critics.

Soomi Kim is a New York City–based theater maker, performer, and curator whose interdisciplinary works blend biography, movement, and multimedia performance. Centering Asian and Asian American narratives, her work explores memory, identity, and embodied storytelling.

Her devised works include Lee/gendary, dictee: bells fall a peal to sky, and Chang(e) with director Suzi Takahashi, as well as MLCG (My Little China Girl), Body Through Which the Dream Flows, Testing2, and GUT (굿), a bilingual dance-theatre work in development, 

Beyond her work in performance, Soomi has maintained a lifelong passion for music, particularly jazz—since her teens, studying saxophone and cultivating a deep love of listening and improvisation. The 605A Music Series grew from this enthusiasm and a desire to champion adventurous, high-caliber artists in an intimate loft setting; a space for deep listening, artistic exchange, and community vibrations.

Soomi was a founding board member of Open Arts Studio.