Kellen "Klassik" Abston: The Ark Performance
Doors open:5:30 pm
Performance start:6:30 pm
Fee: Free
Registration: Registration for this event is now closed.
Artist-in-residence Kellen “KLASSIK” Abston mounts the first iteration of THE ARK: an audio-visual performance he is developing to frame and present new work exploring the concept of Black Pastoral Sonic Landscape Painting. The unique and distinctive performance is the culmination of his Lynden residency and the “KLASSROOM” sessions he offered to the public. This semi-immersive experience will transport guests into a visual pastoral landscape through mapped projections washed across the Lynden gallery, sourced from, and inspired by, media collected during the KLASSROOM workshops. Bringing nature inside the gallery walls, Lynden’s fauna and foliage will serve as a visual backdrop to KLASSIK’S dynamic practice of live musical performance.
About the Artist
Kellen “Klassik” Abston, a self-described “Black Pastoral Sonic Landscape Painter,” is an award-winning Milwaukee-born-and-based musician, producer, songwriter, performing artist, and community curator. Named the City of Milwaukee's 2021 Mildred L. Harpole Artist of the Year, Klassik's jazz-saturated hip-hop/soul, informed by years of traditional jazz study and Milwaukee Public Schools arts education, has taken him from summer festival stages and crowds of thousands, to classroom settings inspiring youth of all ages throughout Wisconsin. His 2019 LP, QUIET, was named the #1 album of the year by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and was awarded Critic's Choice and Solo Artist honors at the 2019 Radio Milwaukee Music Awards. 2022 saw Klassik collaborating with both the Milwaukee Art Museum, producing the original composition and video performance Nobody's Watching, and Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, producing and performing an all-original score for their production of Brian Quijada’s Where Did We Sit on the Bus? In 2024, he again reprised the role of music director and performer with MCT for the season-opening retelling of Homer’s epic Iliad with An Iliad. A true "Klass Act,” Klassik works to stir the souls of listeners into action with empathy, passion, and purpose through his own vulnerable and self-reflective sonic art.
