The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents Sonic Arboretum, a unique music installation by composer/violinist Andrew Bird and sculptor/inventor Ian Schneller. Sonic Arboretum is a sound garden made of 72  audio horn speakers installed in the MCA's second floor atrium.The project exemplifies the MCA's mission to engage audiences in new ways that blur the traditional boundaries of visual and performing arts. The installation is on view December 6-31, 2011 during museum hours and is free with suggested museum admission. Bird stages two ticketed Sonic Events on December 21 and 22. 
 

Andrew Bird records new site-specific compositions at the MCA and sends musical information to different groups of horns allowing visitors to hear varied soundscapes as they move through the installation. The music emanates throughout the MCA's atrium and the speakers create an elegant sculptural landscape. 

Ian Schneller's horn speakers are handmade from dryer lint, newsprint, and shellac. The horns vary in size, from three to over nine feet tall. Additionally, the new XL Double Spinning Horn Speaker debuts at the MCA.The speakers are powered by custom tube amps handmade by Schneller's Specimen Products. Bird uses the horns as the PA system for the live events that take places in the MCA atrium. Sonic Arboretum debuted for a one-night only concert at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2010. The MCA's presentation is the second of its kind and is much larger in scope and duration.