Madison Greenstone is a clarinetist, writer, and composer based in Brooklyn. Their solo practice, exstatic resonances, explores phenomenological, material, and spatial expressivities of sound through richly noisy timbral actions.

As the clarinetist of TAK Ensemble, “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen) they have premiered music by Tyshawn Sorey, Eric Wubbels, Weston Olencki, Michelle Lou, Jessie Cox, Brandon López and champions some of the most radical music currently devised.

Their debut solo album, Resonance Studies in Ecstatic Consciousness (Relative Pitch Records), was included in Bandcamp’s Best Experimental Music of 2023 compilation, and has been described as “one hell of a calling card” (The Wire) and “mind-blowing” (Nowhere Street). Madison can be heard on labels such as Wandelweiser Editions, Another Timbre, TAK Editions, Pleasure of the Text Records, eë editions, Unknown Tapes, New Focus Recordings, Impakt Collective, Greyfade, Important Records, Mengi, and Longform Editions.

Madison performs across the US and internationally as a soloist and chamber musician.
As a soloist, they have been presented through Blank Forms, eavesdropping festival (Cafe Oto), LAMPO, KM28 (Berlin), the Vigeland Mausoleum (Oslo), Night of Surprise (Cologne), ISSUE Project Room (NYC), Non Event (Boston), and the Merce Cunningham Centennial Night of 100 Solos (Los Angeles). As a chamber and orchestral musician they have performed at the New York Philharmonic, PS21, KKL Luzern, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center, The Whitney Biennial, Roulette Intermedium, Indexical, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Miller Theater. They have held residencies at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and University of Chicago. Madison performs as member of Ryan Sawyer’s Shaker Ensemble, Nate Wooley’s Mutual Aid Music, and as a guest with Alarm Will Sound, Argento, Contemporaneous, Nunc New Music, Either/Or, Splinter Reeds, Wet Ink, Metropolis Ensemble, and International Contemporary Ensemble among others.

Madison’s writing on experimental music has been published through LAMPO publications, Greyfade FOLIO, the Museum of Natural History Neuchâtel (CH), Contemporary Music Review, Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (K-Verlag), and in Blank Forms’ 10th and final anthology Alien Roots: Éliane Radigue. Alien Roots contains Madison’s translations from French of archival interviews, reviews, letters, press releases, and installation sketches, all appearing in English for the first time.

Trained in contemporary classical performance, they have learned greatly from the mentorship of Anthony Burr and Charles Curtis at UC San Diego. They studied with Jon Manasse at the Eastman School of Music, and pursued periodic studies with Swiss clarinetist Ernesto Molinari between 2012 and 2018.

Highlights of the 2024-25 season include solo performances at Blank Forms, KM28, MS Stubnitz, and Cafe Oto, and a newly commissioned  collaborative work with Anton Saenko by ISSUE Project Room in conjunction with Berlin-based Ukrainian arts organization Time Based for Distant Pairs. Madison will give performances of MUNDANAS VII-XI with John McCowen at KM28, Mengi (IS), The Lab, Indexical, and Frequency Fest, as well as premiere new works by Wilfrido Terrazas, Seth Cluett, Taylor Deupree/Joe Branciforte, and Solomiya Moroz.  They will perform with TAK ensemble at LAMPO, Roulette Intermedium, Le Vivier Festival (Montreal), Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Center for Performance Research, and in residence at Boston University, Peabody, CUNY, and NYU. As a guest of Metropolis Ensemble, they will perform at the Prototype Festival for new opera, and at Buffalo’s Silo City. Upcoming publications in Blank Forms’ anthology on Éliane Radigue, and through the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (K-Verlag). 

Madison plays on Schwenk & Seggelke (Bamberg) Bb and A clarinets made from mopane wood, a vintage Selmer bass clarinet that was played by Dave Breeden before his passing, and a Leblanc paperclip contrabass clarinet.