Nova Linea Musica brings its adventurous approach to chamber music to The CheckOut with five intimate concerts showcasing exceptional young artists, newly commissioned music, and the next generation of composers.
Led by Artist-in-Residence violinist Rabia Brooke and a rotating cast of collaborators, the series moves freely between great works of the chamber repertoire and music being created right now, including premieres by the winners of NLM’s annual national Score Call.
The centerpiece of the season is the world premiere of Chen Yi’s My Childhood Memories, commissioned for Rabia Brooke, with the celebrated composer herself in attendance.
From the first notes of the season to an entire evening of premieres, these concerts offer the chance to hear remarkable musicians and brand-new music from just a few feet away.
First Light: Rabia Brooke & Haddon Kay
Nova Linea Musica opens its CheckOut season with violinist Rabia Brooke, cellist Haddon Kay, and colleagues in a program that moves between the familiar and the newly imagined. Drawing from the chamber music tradition while making space for music of today, the evening introduces the spirit of the series: exceptional young artists approaching every piece with curiosity, immediacy, and the sense that the music is being discovered in the room.
October 16, 2026 | 7:30 PM
Into the New Year: Rabia Brooke & Chelsea Wang
Midwinter in Chicago, and the music turns inward. Rabia Brooke and Chelsea Wang bring works that ask quiet, essential questions—about time, about memory, and about what it means to listen carefully in a world that rarely slows down.
The chamber music tradition finds its deepest expression in rooms like The CheckOut: close, warm, unhurried, and alive to details that larger halls can swallow whole. These are pieces that reward exactly that kind of intimacy, drawn from across the repertoire and performed by artists who know how to use the room they are in.
January 29, 2027 | 7:30 PM
Inheritance: Chen Yi World Premiere
Inheritance is what we carry forward—and what we make new. At the center of this evening is the world premiere of Chen Yi’s My Childhood Memories, a new solo violin work commissioned by Nova Linea Musica for violinist Rabia Brooke.
The evening moves between musical generations, pairing works that have endured with music heard for the first time. It begins with a short documentary made as the new work took shape, and Chen Yi will be at The CheckOut to experience her music reaching an audience for the very first time.
March 31, 2027 | 7:30 PM
The World Made Larger: Elizabeth Younan World Premiere
A world premiere by composer Elizabeth Younan anchors an evening exploring how today’s music grows out of—and pushes beyond—the traditions that came before it.
Rabia Brooke pairs Younan’s new work with pieces that have shaped her own musical life, creating a program about influence, discovery, and the continual expansion of the violin repertoire. Intricate and luminous, Younan’s music rewards the kind of close listening that The CheckOut makes possible.
April 23, 2027 | 7:30 PM
Score Call Winner Concert: An Evening of Premieres
A season filled with new music ends with three world premieres. The winners of Nova Linea Musica’s national Score Call, directed by composer Clarice Assad, hear their works brought to life by the Nova Linea Musica Piano Trio: Rabia Brooke, violin; Ashly Ryoo, cello; and Tamila Salimdjanova, piano.
Every piece on the program is being performed for the first time. No recordings, no reference points, no received wisdom about how any of it should sound. Just three composers, three brand-new pieces, and a room full of people hearing something no one has heard before.
June 4, 2027 | 7:30 PM