Co-founder Lou Mallozzi is an artist, arts administrator, and educator. He and was Associate Director of ESS since its inception in 1986 until 1999, when he became Executive Director. His duties included developing programming and organizational partnerships, and overseeing administrative and financial operations. During his time at ESS he facilitated the presentation of work by several hundred artists and ensembles to Chicago audiences by curating, organizing, or co-producing scores of performances, exhibitions, broadcasts, roundtable discussions, and other cultural programs. These included the ESS Florasonic sound installation series, the Outer Ear Festival of Sound (2000-2009), the Sounds From Chicago radio series (1988-1996), the Artist Residency Program, and others. He oversaw ESS’s studio renovations in 2001 and 2006, the initiation of the Creative Audio Archive in 2003, and the establishment of Audible Gallery in 2006. He has been invited to speak on numerous panels concerning sound as art, public art practice, and historic and theoretical topics in contemporary art practice. His own practice as an artist engaged primarily with sound has received considerable attention, including performances and exhibitions in the US, Canada, and Europe, as well as grants and residencies from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, the Chicago-Lucerne Sister Cities Program, the Japan Foundation / Ishibashi Foundation, and others. He is a tenured Associate Professor in the Sound Department of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he teaches courses on sound art, sound installation, creative production techniques, and interdisciplinary art practice, as well as coordinating the Sound Department MFA Program. Lou retired from his position as ESS Executive Director in July of 2016.