Peter Margasak

Margasak writes about disparate musical times and communities within the broad field of late-20th and 21st-century music. His contributions to The New York Times include a piece about Algerian "pop rai" artist Khaled Brahim[4] and another on the avant-garde artists of the Theatre of Eternal Music and their battles for proprietorship of drone music;[5] a Pitchfork feature on the year 1979 in Chicago touches on both power pop and the racial dimensions of anti-disco sentiment during "the Rise of House Music";[6] he has written about trip hop for Rolling Stone[7] and reviewed new work by jazz saxophonist Matana Roberts for NPR's All Things Considered.[8] Margasak is a regular contributor to DownBeat,[9] Chamber Music America,[10] and The Quietus,[11] and he is the lead contemporary classical music reviewer for Bandcamp Daily.[12] Among many other publications, he frequently wrote for the Chicago Tribune in the 1990s.[13]

Margasak is best known for his work writing for the Chicago Reader from 1993 to 2018.[3][10] Before he started working for the Chicago Reader, Margasak published the zine Butt Rag, which he started as a sophomore in college.[14] A total of nine issues of Butt Rag were published, and one of them attracted the attention of three Chicago Reader employees, including the then-editor-in-chief Michael Lenehan. After they saw Butt Rag, they decided to offer Margasak a job at the Reader, in the hopes of bringing some of the zine's snarky writing to the Reader's pages.[3][15]

In 2017, Dare Mighty Things declared Margasak one of "37 Influential Media People Shaping The Future Of Chicago".[16]

In September 2018, Margasak announced he would be leaving the Chicago Reader to attend the American Academy in Rome as part of its Visiting Artists & Scholars Program.[3]

In 2013, Margasak founded and began curating the Frequency Series, a weekly series dedicated to showcasing new musicians at the Chicago venue Constellation.[17] He said his goal in starting the series was "to connect the dots between the strong experimental, improvised and contemporary classical scenes in Chicago".[17] Frequency quickly gained traction, and was included in Chicago magazine's "Best of 2014".[18]

In 2016, he launched The Frequency Festival, a week-long version of the series featuring new musicians from the Chicago area; the festival comprises daily performances, culminating with a two-show day on Sunday.[19] His work grew into an acclaimed event[20] with international draw, leading to partnerships and co-presentations with the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Renaissance Society,[21] though it maintains its "home base" at Constellation.[22]

Margasak relocated to Germany after his time in Rome, but he continued his work programming both the series and festival.[2]