Macie Stewart

Macie Stewart’s latest release, When the Distance is Blue (International Anthem, 2024) is out March 21. When the Distance is Blue is a cinematic, symphonic companion to the times we spend in-between. Rooted in Stewart’s prepared piano improvisations and string arrangements, the record is collaged with field recordings from a year on the road, giving shape to Stewart’s most striking work yet.

Macie Stewart is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter, and improviser based in Chicago, IL. A distinguished, go-to collaborator who Pitchfork credits with “making some of the best tracks of the past five years transcendent,” Stewart’s deeply humanist and often otherworldly capacities in deep listening have shaped each collaboration as much as her technical prowess and ingenuity. Aptly called a “master of equilibrium” by DownBeat magazine, she has an uncanny ability to meet the needs of the music with precision and taste.

In 2014, Stewart joined with Sima Cunningham to form their experimental duo project, Finom. Since then, the band has released four records, toured extensively, and is celebrated as an avant-pop, art rock phenomena all its own. Finom’s latest release, Not God (Joyful Noise Recordings, 2024) is ripe with the unmistakable harmonies, cutting lyricism, and sonic landscapes that have captivated local and international audiences alike since the band’s inception ten years ago.

As a composer, Stewart’s work continues to dissolve the boundaries between disciplines. In 2021, she composed a piece for Hubbard Street Dance’s film, “Half of Us,” alongside Finom bandmate, Sima Cunningham. That same year, she worked with Sima Cunningham and Alex Grelle to produce a performance piece paying homage to Kate Bush. In 2022, Stewart composed the score for a 50-piece orchestra premiering the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Before I Was.” And in 2023, choreographer Robyn Mineko Williams enlisted Stewart to create a sound installation for her dreamlike performance piece, Hisako House. Most recently, Stewart was invited to compose a site-specific piece for the ESS Florisonic Installation at Lincoln Park Conservatory. As part of the longest running sound installation in North America, their twenty-minute composition titled “The World Doubles in Size” played in the conservatory’s fern room from September through November of 2024.