BIOGRAPHY

Mark Nagy is a Chicago-based, genre-leaping saxophonist, electronic musician and composer. With a vast background in performing and recording in a variety of idioms, he continually questions sonic and structural boundaries as well as spatial relationships in his performances. He’s especially drawn to explore the continuum between fixed forms, notated materials and improvisation. He is expert and innovative on tenor and soprano saxophones, Eurorack modular synthesis and realizations of unconventional as well as traditional musical systems.

 

In the past decade Mark Nagy has solidly established himself on Chicago’s highly energized, experimental live-performance scene. He’s led ensembles at venues including Elastic Arts, the Check Out, Tangible Books, Compound Yellow and Experimental Sound Studio. His projects have included a duet with fellow-synthesist Neil Jendon uniquely interpreting Cornelius Cardew’s 193-page symbol-scored Treatise. Investigating linkages between his jazz upbringing and Hungarian ancestry, supported by a 2025 Creative Accelerator grant from the Illinois Arts Council, Nagy has orchestrated works by Béla Bartók for an improvisation-capable chamber ensemble of brass and winds.

 

Station Four is Mark Nagy’s most ambitious current project: A multi-disciplinary ensemble, comprising five musicians (two playing reeds/woodwinds, electric guitar, bass-and synth, piano), four dancers and spoken word performer Kao Ra Zen, which creates expansive, immersive experiences imaginatively expressing social concerns and emphasizing community involvement. In 2023 the city of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) awarded Mark a grant to compose a 10-movement suite for Station Four, celebrating historic local events and landmarks where diverse neighborhood residents have met to knit the city’s character. Station Four performed “We the People,” at the Impromptu Fest in 2023 and the Ear Taxi Festival in 2026, both events curated by New Music Chicago.

 

Nagy is also a member of the Tri-Centric Experiencers Unit, an evolving collective of Chicago musicians focused on the compositions of groundbreaking Anthony Braxton. First convened in 2024 to play a multilayered rendition of Braxton’s modular “trans-idiomatic” Ghost Trance Music, this group recently has delved into Braxton’s works which hybridize notation, graphics and improvisation.

 

Ever expanding his artistic practice, Nagy has produced a series of short videos employing experimental techniques, including film souping, OBS and other data moshing to accompany a suite of electronic music composed in collaboration with Elanie Lillios. He’s written poems that Kao Ra Zen enfolds into his own texts and excerpts from classic writings in action with Station Four. Sound is Mark Nagy’s main metiér, but his creativity knows no bounds.