JACK LANGDON

is an experimental composer, filmmaker, and writer who was born in 1994 and is a citizen of the sault ste. marie tribe of chippewa indians.

nindaa gichi-neyaashiing

[archive and documentation of past performances can be found here]

UPCOMING EVENTS

2.1.26
Jack Langdon (bibigwan), Kory Reeder (cello), Jeff Kimmel (clarinet), Graham Stephenson (trumpet)
International Museum of Surgical Science
Chicago, IL

2.16.26

Jack Langdon (bibigwan)
Striped Light
Brooklyn, NY

2.21.26

Webb Crawford (tromba marina), Sean Ali (tromba marina), Adam O’Farrill (brass), Jack Langdon (serpent)
Webb Crawford Residency

Issue Project Room
Brooklyn, NY

2.23.26

Jack Langdon (bibigwan)

Trinity College Chapel Crypt
Hartford, CT

3.8.26

Jack Langdon (bibigwan), Luke Martin (tone generator), Jeff Kimmel (clarinet), Graham Stephenson (trumpet)
Frequency Series at Constellation
Chicago, IL

BIOGRAPHY, CV, CONTACT

PHOTO BY HANNAH KRUSE

Jack Erskine Langdon
b. 1994 in Madison, Wisconsin

BIOGRAPHY

Jack Langdon (b. 1994) is an Ojibwe composer and performer of experimental music. He writes concert music and performs nontraditional work for pipe organ and the Ojibwe wooden flute, the bibigwan. He is currently a PhD student at Northwestern University, and his most important teachers have been Katherine Young, Ash Fure, Linda Catlin Smith, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Jay Alan Yim.

His musical work investigates incompleteness, indifference, mimesis, silence, and material brevity. He is currently devising systematic approaches to non-harmony through his book project A Family of Things Rendered as Magic Chords. Jack’s musical orientation seeks points of resonance between Anishinaabe thought and the tradition of experimental music.

His work has been presented internationally at Klangspuren Schwaz (AT), Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium (DK), University of Toronto Mississauga’s Indigenous Creation Studio (CAN), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (DE), Issue Project Room (US), Kunstuniversität Graz (AT), and Akademie múzických umění v Praze (CZ). His work has been supported by The Fromm Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Alice Kaplan Institute for Public Humanities, the Awesome Foundation, and The McKnight Foundation. Jack has written works for Yarn/Wire, Ensemble Dal Niente, Prague Quiet Music Collective, Talea Ensemble, the pianist Jack Yarbrough, the flutist Sara Constant, the organist Graeme Shields, and the flutist and harpist Yoshi Weinberg. As a performer, his main collaborators are the clarinetist Jeff Kimmel, the guitarist Anthony Vine, the saxophonist Olivia Shortt, and the guitarist and instrument builder Webb Crawford.

His recordings have been released by IMPREC, Sawyer Editions, Dinzu Artefacts, and Lobby Art Records. His written work has been published by Sound American, Cacophony, and Shred Magazine. He runs an independent record label and music journal called Empty Stage and runs a blog called Challenging Music.

He was born in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in Keyeser, Wisconsin. Jack is an enrolled citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan, coming from the Erskine, Corp, Blanchard, and Anse families of the Mackinac Bands through his paternal grandfather, James “Les” Langdon.

PHOTO BY PETER GANNUSHKIN