Wild Up has been lauded as one of classical music’s most exciting groups by virtually every significant institution and critic within earshot. In 2010, Artistic Director Christopher Rountree founded Wild Up with 15 musicians. Today, this GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble comprises 32 performers, with membership ranging from award-winning composers to experts in contemporary techniques, baroque music specialists, activists, studio musicians, indie artists, and educators.

Through concerts, happenings, public programs, recordings, and open rehearsals, the group uplifts contemporary artists through self-presenting, institutional collaboration, touring, and educational residencies.

Wild Up has collaborated with an expansive list of composers, performers, and cultural institutions. Over the last decade, the group has premiered hundreds of new works with artists such as Pamela Z, David Lang, Ted Hearne, Julia Holter, Scott Walker, Juliana Barwick, and Ragnar Kjartansson and accompanied significant stars such as Björk.

Wild Up has given platforms to a generation of LA composers and new music performers, vaulting them onto a national stage with acclaim from many media outlets, including LA Times, New York Times, New Yorker, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Pitchfork, WQXR, KUSC, KCRW, KPCC, and many others. Wild Up’s 2023 NPR Tiny Desk Concert reached over 65,000 people.