| MusicNOW Festival | |
|---|---|
| Location(s) | Cincinnati |
| Years active | 2006 |
MusicNOW is a contemporary music and arts festival founded in 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Chamber Music Cincinnati. President Audrey Luna and guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner curated this inaugural season. It was originally held at the Contemporary Arts Center and later moved to Memorial Hall, a small historic theater located in the city's historic Over-the-Rhine district. Festival performers have included contemporary music advocates Bang on a Can All-Stars and Kronos Quartet as well as indie rock groups such as Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors and The National. Two annual elements of the festival have been the inclusion of visual art, including installations by Karl Jensen, and new music commissions.
In 2014, MusicNOW became part of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's annual subscription season. This inclusion ceased in 2018, when MusicNOW expanded to be held in association with Homecoming, a new music festival curated and headlined by The National, essentially merging the two festivals into an expansive city-wide event, though the two festivals are ticketed separately.[1][2]
After a two-year break in 2019–20, MusicNOW will return, and will take place on 07-09 May 2021. 2020 saw the festival get cancelled caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.