Olivia Block (1970) is a media artist and composer. Her discography, spanning many years, is published on Another Timbre, Black Truffle, Erstwhile, Glistening Examples, NNA Tapes, Room40, Sedimental, and Touch, among other labels. She performs live experimental music, where at any given concert she might be playing electronic instruments, piano, organ or amplified objects. Block also creates surround sound concerts, sound installations and scores.
Her latest release, The Mountains Pass, is on Black Truffle records.
Block has performed, premiered and exhibited her work throughout Europe, America, and Japan in tours in festivals and performance series including Incubate (Tilburg), MoogFest, Festival del Bosque Germinal (Mexico City), Sonic Light (Amsterdam), Redbull Academy, Kontraste (Krems), Dissonanze (Rome), Archipel (Geneva) Angelica (Bologna), Sunoni per il Popolo (Montreal), and many others. Additionally, she has presented work at the ICA (London), MCA (Chicago), La Biennale di Venezia 52nd International Festival of Contemporary Music, The Kitchen (NYC), ISSUE Project Room, Experimental Intermedia (Brooklyn), and TIFF (Toronto).
Block has created site specific sound installations for public spaces and exhibition spaces worldwide, including the including Arthur Ross Gallery at University of Pennsylvania, CEAM at Flagler University, MCA Chicago, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Museo Reina Sofia, and University of Chicago, Manhattan Museum of Arts and Design, Sokolowsko Sanitorium (Poland), CONTEXT (Miami and NY), The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (Chicago), and at the “Echoes Through the Mountains” exhibit at the 2006 Winter Olympics (Turin, Italy). She is currently completing an installation for The Nasher Sculpture Center, to be included in the Harry Bertoia Retrospective in early 2022.
She teaches at The School of the Art Institute in the Sound Department, and at Northwestern University in the Sound Arts and Industries program. Olivia is based in Chicago, and often travels for her work.