About

AUTHORITY FIGURINES are a musical arts collective based between California and Chicago. Founded by longstanding collaborators Dominic Johnson and Matthew Liam Nicholson, we compose and produce music and events advancing art and community. Centered around a string quartet & house band, we expand and collapse the ensemble in collaboration with specific classical arrangements, diverse contemporary artists, and localities.

Music

Scenius is a word Brian Eno coined to describe creatives working together to form a scene. He said he was interested in "the intelligence of a whole operation or group of people. I think that’s a more useful way to think about culture. Let’s forget the idea of ‘genius’ for a little while, let’s think about the whole ecology of ideas that give rise to good new thoughts and good new work."
The idea behind the ensemble's events is to have them feel like a house concert, to help foster the scene, encourage people to interact, and to share some of our own artistry as well to hopefully inspire others. We play classical music new and old, commission/write our own new works, and often invite DJs to curate the audio environment of the event. Most of the older classical music we play is from Europe, while the new music is generally either written by us, friends, or improvised.

Photos

Programs

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