Lia Kohl is composer and sound artist based in Chicago. Trained as a cellist, she also incorporates synthesizers, field recordings, toy instruments and radios into her work as a soloist, collaborator, composer, and installation artist. She gravitates towards sound practices which reveal and speak to their time and place: field recording, improvisation, radio broadcast and transmission. She often focuses on mundane or pedestrian sounds – sounds which often go unnoticed or under-documented, searching for the profound, unknown, and beautiful in everyday life.


Her work has been presented internationally at museums, galleries, and festivals, as well as unconventional spaces like train stations, public swimming pools, and parks. She has been a resident artist at Mana Contemporary, Pioneer Works, Stanford University, Mills College and a Transmission Art Fellow at Wave Farm. She has released five solo records and numerous collaborative recordings.