Lia Kohl is a cellist, composer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago. She creates and performs sonic landscapes utilizing cello, synthesizers, field recordings, and live radio to explore the mundane and profound possibilities of sound. She has presented work and performed at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Walker Art Center, Chicago Symphony Center, and Eckhart Park Pool. Recent releases include Untitled Radio (futile, fertile) on Longform Editions, and The Ceiling Reposes on American Dreams Records. She is the 2023/24 Wave Farm Radio Art Fellow.
Her work has been featured in Pitchfork, The Quietus, The Chicago Tribune, and Downbeat Magazine, and on NTS Radio, Kunstradio, Chirp Radio, and WNYC. Recent collaborative releases include duos with Macie Stewart (Astral Spirits), Honestly Same (Moonglyph), and ZRL (American Dreams Records).
As an improviser and collaborator, she has participated in cultural exchanges in Mexico, France, Germany, Denmark, China and the UK, and toured on four continents. An active recording artist, she has arranged strings and recorded with Makaya McCraven, Circuit des Yeux, Steve Gunn, claire rousay, and Steve Hauschildt, among others. As a sound and visual artist, she has presented gallery shows at Roman Susan Art Foundation and Experimental Sound Studios’ Audible Gallery. She has been a resident artist at ACRE, Vashon Artist Residency, High Concept Labs, dfbrl8r Performance Art Gallery, Mana Contemporary, Stanford University, and Mills College. She tours regularly with puppet theater company Manual Cinema.