Charmaine Lee

Auricle New Music Series presents a triple bill with Charmaine Lee, NIKA and Emili Earhart on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 at 7:00pm. Free admission, donations welcomed.

Charmaine Lee’s solo performances are visceral sonic rituals. Using voice, feedback, and electronics, she sculpts volatile, deeply embodied soundscapes that slip between intimacy and intensity. Drawing from noise, improvisation, and extended vocal technique, her sets are unpredictable, immersive, and alive with risk.

Performing under her given name, NIKA strips back the theatrical grandeur of her Zola Jesus project to present raw, elemental performances rooted in voice, texture, and emotional force. With a sound that melds operatic power, electronic minimalism, and dark ambience, NIKA’s sets are intense and ritualistic—an intimate confrontation with the self and the sacre.

Madison's own Emili Earhart explores elasticity and expansion in the setting of cosmic minimalism at the keyboard. Don't miss this lineup of three great musicians!

Charmaine Lee is a New York-based vocalist and electronics artist whose work explores the extremes of presence, intimacy, and noise. Known for her fierce improvisational approach and use of extended vocal techniques, she has collaborated with artists including Ikue Mori, Conrad Tao, and the JACK Quartet. Her solo sets use feedback, vocal fragments, and real-time processing to create live compositions that are as fragile as they are ferocious.

NIKA

Zola Jesus aka NIKA is a genre-defying musician whose work spans industrial, classical, electronic, and gothic pop. Her singular voice and haunting songwriting have earned acclaim for their emotional depth and sonic ambition. With releases on Sacred Bones and performances around the world, Zola Jesus continues to expand the bounds of experimental and alternative music.

Emili Earhart

Keyboardist Emili Earhart earned her undergraduate degree in Piano Performance at UW-Madison's Mead-Witter School of Music ('17) under the instruction of Christopher Taylor. Notable performances at UW-Madison include John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for the Prepared Piano, and the complete Piano Etudes by Philip Glass. She is currently based in Madison, WI and teaches piano in addition to performing with local projects including TS Foss and Graham Hunt. Solo, Earhart explores elasticity and expansion in the setting of cosmic minimalism at the keyboard.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.

CALENDAR

Charmaine Lee | NIKA | Emili Earhart

Charmaine Lee

NIKA

Emili Earhart

PLAN YOUR VISIT

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