About

Eighth Blackbird moves music forward through innovative performance, advocacy for art by living creatives, and its growing legacy of guiding an emerging generation of artists. 

Hailed as “one of the smartest, most dynamic ensembles on the planet” (Chicago Tribune), Eighth Blackbird [8BB] began in 1997 as a group of six undergraduate students and has continued on under the leadership of two founding members: Lisa Kaplan and Matthew Duvall. Eighth Blackbird is currently comprised of: 

Lina Andonvoska, flutes

Zachary Good, clarinets

Maiani da Silva, violin

Aaron Wolff, cello

Matthew Duvall, percussion

Lisa Kaplan, piano

Accolades include: Four Grammy Awards for Best Small Ensemble/Chamber Music Performance | The MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions | The Concert Artists Guild Competition Grand Prize | The Musical America Ensemble of the Year | The Chamber Music America Visionary Award | The APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards Performance of the Year.

Creative Output Includes: Commissions and World Premieres of hundreds of works by established and emerging composers | Fully Produced Theatrical Chamber Music Productions | Chamber Ensemble Concertos with both orchestras and bands | An Extensive Recording Catalog

In addition to chamber music performance, the members of 8BB value their roles as curators, educators, and mentors. Beginning exclusively as a chamber music ensemble, 8BB has expanded in recent years to represent multiple mission-driven initiatives: Eighth Blackbird | DūvKăp | The Blackbird Creative Lab | The Chicago Artists Workshop | Blackbird Productions 

The name “Eighth Blackbird” derives from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens’s evocative, imagistic poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: “I know noble accents / And lucid, inescapable rhythms; / But I know, too, / That the blackbird is involved / In what I know.”