Beethoven Festival: REVOLUTION 2012

National Pastime Theater
941 West Lawrence Avenue
Chicago, IL
Festival tickets: $15 for one day, $25/30/60 for multiple days
More information & tickets: www.lvbfest.com

There is no more appropriate compositional figure than Beethoven to sense as a shadowy presence for a concert given in a major US city at 11PM on the 11th anniversary of September 11. What ways this particular date and time will impact the listeners and performers is impossible to say; the only thing certain is that it will.

Ensemble Dal Niente gives the North American premiere of Evan Johnson's die bewegung der augen ("the movement of the eyes"). According to the composer, "four small attempted mechanisms, provisional local regularities, tentative lattices of simultaneity, obstacles and ornamented planes, networks forming and diffusing, constellations of approaches to a hazy framework of durations, gestures, instrumental groupings, and sometimes harmonies," it is a work whose complexity is matched only by its alien beauty.

A "Vanitas" is a still life, the subject of which is designed to instill in the viewer a contemplation of the emptiness of all worldly things, the fleeting nature of time, and the inevitability of death. Salvatore Sciarrino's chamber opera of the same name is a severely and devotedly didactic musical distillation of this.

Evan Johnson (b. 1980): die bewegung der augen (2012) (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE) for oboe/EH, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, piano, percussion, guitar, violin, viola, and cello
Salvatore Sciarrino (b.1947): Vanitas, still life in one act (1981) for soprano, cello, and piano

[die bewegung der augen was commissioned through Meet The Composer’s Commissioning Music/USA program, which is made possible by generous support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund.]

Dal Niente 2012-13 Benefit Concert:
Celebrating the Music of Chinary Ung

High Concept Laboratories
Chicago, IL

Featuring: Gregory Beyer, percussion; Mabel Kwan, piano; Chris Wild, cello, and a special appearance by Susan Ung, viola

Tickets can only be purchased in advance. There will be no door sales.

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Dal Niente musicians Gregory Beyer, Chris Wild, and Mabel Kwan will present an afternoon of intimate chamber music by renowned Cambodian-American composer Chinary Ung, whose music represents a remarkable synthesis of Asian and Western influences, stunningly rendered in an utterly beautiful and idiosyncratic musical language.

Ung, the first American to ever win the Grawemeyer Award for music composition, is an internationally celebrated composer whose music is praised simultaneously for its complexity and its beauty. On September 16, Chinary Ung and his wife, violist Susan Ung, will be present, and the group will be joined by west coast musicians Stacey Fraser (piano) and Jocelyn Chang (piano), providing a special occasion for Chicago new music audiences to meet the composer and to experience his music in the intimate setting of High Concept Laboratories.

Proceeds from this benefit concert will help support Ensemble Dal Niente's 2012-13 programming in Chicago. Tickets to this event include drinks and wine.

Chinary Ung (b.1942)
Cinnabar Heart (2009) for marimba
Seven Mirrors (1997) for piano
      I. A Window in the Sky
      IV. Laughter Passes Over the Earth
      VII. Flying Mirrors
Spiral XI: “Mother and Child” (2008) for viola
After Rising Light (2009) for soprano and piano
Khse Buon (abridged version) (1980) for viola
Spiral I (1987) for cello, piano, and percussion

Festival Internacional Chihuahua

Teatro de Camera Fernando Saavedra
Chihuahua, Mexico

Dal Niente makes its Mexican debut in the city of Chihuahua, presenting works by one of Mexico’s most established composers, Mario Lavista, as well as a highly creative and influential voice of its younger generation, Aristides Llaneza

Mario Lavista (b.1943): Cuaderno de viaje (1989) for solo viola
Mario Lavista: Canto del alba (1979) for solo alto flute
Marcos Balter (b.1974): Strohbass (2011) for bass flute and baritone saxophone (MEXICAN PREMIERE)
Luciano Berio (1925-2003): Sequenza VI (1967) for viola
Georges Aperghis (b.1945): Recitations (1978) for voice
Philippe Leroux (b.1959): Un Lieu Verdoyant (1999) soprano voice and soprano saxophone
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007): ZUNGENSPITZENTANZ (1983) for solo piccolo
Aristides Llaneza (b. 1974): New work (2012) for voice, flute, baritone saxophone, and viola (WORLD PREMIERE)

PROXIMITY: Chaya Czernowin

Nichols Concert Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago
1490 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL
Tickets: $20 general / $10 student

Ensemble Dal Niente invites celebrated composer Chaya Czernowin to Chicago for a collaborative concert as the second installment of the ensemble’s composer portrait series, PROXIMITY.

Though Czernowin was born in Israel, she has lived extensively in Japan, Germany, Austria and the United States. Thus, even for an age of interconnectedness, her music reflects the true diversity, one might almost say rootless, of her international experience. A uniquely 21st century compositional voice, one can hear in all of her works a relentless search for what she calls an "alternative to a linear dramatic temporal experience." Whether it be in Afatsim, conceptually based on deformities and disfigurations on tree branches, or in the alternately aggressive and beautiful Sahaf, the desire to discover, confront, and experience new and strange sounds worlds is ever-present. Her music is paired with that of a major personal influence, Steven Takasugi, whose Jargon of Nothingness places an oboe and a bass clarinet in unusual interactions with a nervous and unpredictable electronic background.

Chaya Czernowin (b.1957): The Last Leaf (2012) for sopranino saxophone (WORLD PREMIERE)
Czernowin: Afatsim (1996) for bass flute, bass clarinet, oboe, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass
Steven Takasugi (b.1960): Jargon of Nothingness (2002-03/2012) for oboe, clarinet, and electronics
Czernowin: Winter Songs II (2003) for bass flute, bass clarinet, bass trombone, tuba, three percussionists, viola, cello, and double bass
Anton Webern (1883-1945): Four pieces for violin and piano (1910)
Czernowin: Sahaf (2008) for saxophone, electric guitar, piano, and percussion

With the friendly support of

Hard Music Hard Liquor

Mayne Stage
1328 Morse Avenue
Chicago, IL
Tickets: $25 reserved / $20 general / $10 student
Available at www.maynestage.com

The holiday season brings you The Nutcracker and The Messiah. Dal Niente brings you Hard Music Hard Liquor.

Known for its fearless approach to difficult contemporary repertoire, Dal Niente throws several of its artists center stage in wild (yet classic?) soloistic displays of instrumental and vocal virtuosity, with remarkable piano works by Brian Ferneyhough and Stefan Prins, whose Piano Hero #1 places the musician in battle with an alter ego via live video. Back by popular demand will be Jesse Langen in a reprise of his signature role as The Duke of Prunes. This event welcomes all audience members ages 18 and up.

Brian Ferneyhough (b.1943): Lemma – Icon – Epigram (1981) for solo piano
Philippe Hurel (b.1955): Loops II (2002) for solo vibraphone
Stefan Prins (b.1979): Piano Hero #1 (2011) for piano, midi-keyboard, live electronics, and video (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
György Kurtág (b.1926): selections from Kafka Fragments (1987) for soprano and violin
Lee Hyla (b.1952): Passegiata (2007) for solo violin
Ray Evanoff (b.1984): Negotiating the Absolute Location of Buoyancy (2012) for solo horn
Chris Fisher-Lochhead (b.1984): Shredhaus (2012) for solo guitar (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
Malin Bang (b.1974): Turbid Motion (2010) for bass flute, bass clarinet, guitar, 2 percussionists, piano, violin, cello (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
Frank Zappa (1940-1993)/arr. Fisher-Lochhead: The Duke of Prunes (1966/2010) for amateur vocalist and chamber ensemble

(Un)familiar Music Series: (Re)New Amsterdam

The Empty Bottle
1035 North Western Avenue
Chicago, IL
Tickets: $10 or more donation/$5 students
More info www.emptybottle.com

On October 29th, Hurricane Sandy devastated the warehouse studios of New Amsterdam Records. On December 16th, the Chicago new-music scene unites to do something about it.

Beyond the immense structural damage sustained at New Amsterdam, the label lost roughly 70% of its CD stock to the Sandy storm surge. Ensemble Dal Niente joins fifteen of Chicago’s contemporary music organizations and DJs for an event to benefit the recovery and revitalization of one of the most outstanding new music record labels in recent years. Dal Niente musicians Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, Ryan Muncy, Chris Wild, and Austin Wulliman perform works by Marcos Balter, Chris Fisher-Lochhead, and Philippe Leroux.

Dal Niente Presents: “Voices”
by Shanna Gutiérrez, flute

Nichols Concert Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago
1490 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL
Tickets: $10/$5 at the door

with Gregory Beyer, percussion; Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano; Chris Wild, cello; and Jesse Langen, guitar

Flutist Shanna Gutiérrez presents an imaginative recital which explores the intricate and aged relationship between breath, voice, movement, and language. Each work is rooted in a specific text, which is then used musically through song or spoken word or as a vehicle for deriving other expressive sounds. Featuring five world premieres, in addition to Stockhausen’s FREIA, the music incorporates vocal text(ure)s, electronics, and choreography in some surprising new ways.

Ray Evanoff (b.1984): An exceedingly clear Absolution Machine (2012) for solo piccolo (WORLD PREMIERE)
Fredrick Gifford (b.1972): Letterludes (2012) for alto flute, guitar and percussion(WORLD PREMIERE)
Jamie Leigh Sampson: Still Life (2012/13) for voice, flute, and cello (WORLD PREMIERE)
Francisco Castillo Trigueros (b.1983): Sur le debris (2012) for bass flute and electronics (WORLD PREMIERE)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007): ZUNGENSPITZENTANZ vom SAMSTAG aus LICHT (1983) for solo flute
Horatiu Radulescu (1942-2008): Dizzy Divinity I (1985) for solo flute (US PREMIERE)
Olga Krashenko (b.1983): Ge (2009) for solo flute with voice and electronics (US PREMIERE)

ECSTATIC MUSIC FESTIVAL:
Deerhoof, Dal Niente, and Marcos Balter

Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center
129 W. 67th Street
New York, NY
Featuring: Satomi Matsuzaki, vocals
Tickets: kaufman-center.org

Deerhoof - labeled "the best band in the world” by Pitchfork and called “one of the most original rock bands to have come along in the last decade” by The New York Times - will collaborate with Dal Niente on a new work for the first time after sharing a bill in Chicago's Millennium Park last summer as part of the Loops and Variations Concert Series. The program includes a new work by Brazilian-born composer Marcos Balter for Deerhoof and Dal Niente, arrangements by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof songs for Dal Niente and a performance of works by Balter written for Dal Niente. Balter's music has been called “minutely crafted” and “utterly lovely” (Chicago Tribune) and “whimsical” and “surreal” (New York Times). The Chicago Tribune praises Balter's “wickedly original sense of humor and a fiercely imaginative palette of instrumental and vocal sounds.”

Marcos Balter (b.1974): Meltdown Upshot (2013, WORLD PREMIERE) for three vocalists and large ensemble
Gregory Saunier: Deerhoof Chamber Variations (2013) for nine players
Marcos Balter: Ear, Bone, and Skin Riddles (2012) for soprano, violin, and cello
Marcos Balter: Wicker Park (2009) for soprano saxophone
Deerhoof: Selections TBA

Hommage to Ligeti, Hauer, and Reich

PianoForte Salon in the Fine Arts Building
410 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL

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Featuring: Mabel Kwan, piano

In the intimate setting of the PianoForte Salon, pianist Mabel Kwan presents a rare performance of Haas’ Trois Hommages, a feat in itself considering one pianist is required to play two pianos simultaneously. While one piano is tuned conventionally, the other is detuned by one quarter-tone in its entire range, creating a palette of 176 pitches played by one musician. Each movement pays tribute to an influential composer who profoundly shaped the course of 20th century music.

Georg Friedrich Haas (b.1953): Trois Hommages (1984) for one pianist playing two pianos tuned one quarter-tone apart
      I. Hommage à György Ligeti
      II. Hommage à Josef Matthias Hauer
      III. Hommage à Steve Reich

In Vain

Ruth Page Center for the Arts
1016 North Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL

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A cornerstone of the 2012-13 season, Dal Niente presents the Chicago premiere of Haas’ In Vain, regarded by many to be the first musical masterpiece of the 21st century. Inspired in part by the composer’s discontent toward far-right political victories in Austria in 2000, Haas plays with opposing forces of light and darkness, activity and stasis, culminating in dramatic waves of sound performed by the ensemble in complete darkness, a process which upsets the expectations of musicians and listeners alike and highlights the work’s experiential qualities.

Dal Niente also presents the North American premiere of Christopher Trapani’s Anyplace Else, which was written for Dal Niente and premiered at the 46th International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany, a piece in which eleven players are communally bound by the vivid colors of an electric guitar.

Christopher Trapani (b.1980) : Anyplace Else (2012) for flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, electric guitar, piano, violin, viola, cello, and bass (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
Georg Friedrich Haas (b.1953): In Vain (2000) for 24 players

With the friendly support of

This performance is supported by
the cultural services of the Austrian Consulate General Chicago and Grand Piano Haus.

WUD Music: Deerhoof + Dal Niente

Music Hall at the University of Wisconsin Madison
925 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI
More information: wudmusic.com

In furthering their attempts to break down the imaginary walls that separate classical and rock music, Deerhoof and Ensemble Dal Niente team up the University of Wisconsin Madison for a show that features drummer Greg Saunier’s cycle of Deerhoof songs arranged for Dal Niente.

Dal Niente’s set to include:
Gregory Saunier: Deerhoof Chamber Variations (2013) for nine players
Shawn Jaeger (b.1985): In Old Virginny (2007) for soprano and double bass
Marcos Balter (b.1974): RE: (no subject) (2004) for violin and piano
Georges Aperghis (b.1945): selections from Recitations (1978) for voice
Edgar Guzman (b.1981): After Tomorrow (2011) for saxophone and electronics

Northwestern University Residency

Bienen School of Music
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
More information: www.pickstaiger.org/events

World premieres of new works by David Carter, Elliott Cless, Joan Arnau Pàmies, David Reminick, Scott Scharf and Liza White.

Opening Night at Constellation:
Dal Niente and Green Pasture Happiness

9pm doors open
9:30pm Green Pasture Happiness
10:00pm Ensemble Dal Niente

Constellation
3111 N. Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60618
Free

Constellation is Chicago's newest venue for cutting edge music, located in the former home of the Viaduct Theater. As Chicago's local answer to New York's "Le Poisson Rouge" and "Roulette", this 180-seat venue will host a weekly new music series, "Frequency". Dal Niente and electronic improvisation group Green Pasture Happiness share the opening bill for Constellation's opening night of new music.

Nathan Davis: Cipher (2012) for baritone sax and live electronics (World Premiere)
Stefan Prins (b.1979): Piano Hero #1 (2011) for piano, midi keyboard, live electronics, and video
Steve Reich (b.1936): Violin Phase (1967) for violin and tape
Fausto Romitelli (1963-2004): Trash TV Trance (2002) for electric guitar

WERKplaats

National Pastime Theater
941 W. Lawrence Avenue at the Preston Bradley Center
Chicago, IL
Tickets: $25 general / $15 students with ID
Featuring Carrie Henneman Shaw, soprano; Chris Wild, cello, and Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble

WERKplaats is a performance, a gathering, an evening born of extensive artistic collaboration. Join Ensemble Dal Niente, Quince Vocal Ensemble, and High Concept Laboratories for an evening of new works tailor-made for the performers, featuring current and former members of High Concept Labs' Sponsored Projects Program: composer Robert Honstein, visual artist Liz McCarthy, and Ensemble Dal Niente. After the performance, audience members are encouraged to stick around for an acoustic set / afterparty by the Grant Wallace Band. Free drinks will be provided throughout the evening.

In the late 1970s, the Asko Ensemble – an Amsterdam-based forerunner of today’s contemporary chamber ensemble model – established a composer-performer collective called Werkplaats met weekly and provided the opportunity for extensive collaboration between composers and performers. Dal Niente takes a proverbial page from the ASKO Ensemble with WERKplaats, a performance experience based on extensive workshop collaboration. Co-produced by High Concept Laboratories, the audience will have an opportunity to connect with these new works in a relaxed, intimate environment lacking the protocol of traditional concerts.

Brooklyn-based composer Robert Honstein will work closely with Dal Niente musicians to create a new work of musical theater based on a series of emails unintentionally addressed to him. The ensemble will also perform a new work of Santiago Diez-Fisher created during an intensive workshop produced by the 2012 Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, as well as solo pieces tailor-made for the players’ unique talents and a new work commissioned specifically for this event by Chicago composer Morgan Krauss.

Robert Honstein (b.1980): My Heart Iz Open (2013, WORLD PREMIERE) for solo soprano, chamber ensemble, and vocal ensemble
Daniel Dehaan (b.1988): If it encounters the animal, if it becomes animalized... (2013, WORLD PREMIERE) for cello
Alexandre Lunsqui: Glaes (2007) for piano and percussion
Morgan Krauss (b.1985): Overcast (2013, WORLD PREMIERE) for bass flute, bass clarinet, and baritone sax
Santiago Diez Fisher (b.1977): Moving as not moving (2012, US PREMIERE) for bass flute, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, electric guitar, viola, cello, and bass

(Un)familiar Music Series:
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and Jesse Langen

The Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Avenue
Chicago, IL
Tickets: $15 at the door

As part of the inaugural season of The Empty Bottle’s new music series, guitarist Jesse Langen and soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett present solo and chamber music by Aaron Einbond, Marcos Balter, Fred Gifford, Ray Evanoff, and Chris Fisher-Lochhead.

Eliza Brown (b. 1985): Oh Feet (2013) for guitar and soprano (WORLD PREMIERE)
Ravi Kittappa (b. 1976): Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst... (2013) for guitar and soprano (WORLD PREMIERE)
Fred Gifford (b. 1972): One, Everyone (2013) for guitar and soprano (WORLD PREMIERE)
Chris Fisher-Lochhead (b. 1984): New Work (2013) for guitar and soprano (WORLD PREMIERE)
Morgan Krauss (b. 1985): Overcast in the Purest of Hues (2013) for guitar and soprano (WORLD PREMIERE)
Ray Evanoff (1984): For the Sake of Opacity (A Catalysst for Honesty) (2013) for piccolo, guitar and soprano (WORLD PREMIERE)
Marcos Balter (b. 1974): New Work (2013) for guitar and soprano (WORLD PREMIERE)

Dal Niente + Experimental Sound Studio SWR
SALT FESTIVAL

Victoria, British Columbia

Dal Niente makes its Canadian debut at Victoria’s SALT Festival in this collaborative concert with the Experimental Studio SWR of Freiburg, Germany, featuring works by Mark Andre and Detlef Heusinger developed specifically for the intense sound capabilities of the SWR Studio.

Mark Andre (b.1964): ...hoc... (2006) for solo cello and live electronics
Mauricio Pauly (b.1976): Apartamento Polsen Apartamento Peterson (2013) for cello, tenor saxophone, and piano (WORLD PREMIERE)
Gérard Pesson (b. 1958): La Vita e Come L'Albero di Natale (1992) for violin and piano
Pesson: La Lumiere n'a pas Bras pour nous Porter (1994-95) for amplified piano
Aaron Cassidy (b. 1976): Asphyxia (2000) for soprano saxophone
Andrew Greenwald (b. 1980): Jeku(ii) (2011) for violin and cello (WORLD PREMIERE)
Detlef Heusinger (b. 1956): Abraum (1995) for violin, cello, piano, and live electronics

MusicArte Panama:
Festival de Musica Contemporanea
Panama City, Panama

More information: musicartepanama.com

MusicArte Panamá, a week long contemporary music festival, seeks to establish Panama’s place as a nexus of artistic creativity in the realm of contemporary music.  In its first edition, six young Latin American composers will work with resident ensembles - Ensemble Dal Niente and Paisaxe - and under the supervision of our faculty composers Mario Lavista and Ileana Perez Velazquez in preparing a performance of their work. Taking place over the course of a week in June featuring public presentations, rehearsals, and lectures, the festival will conclude with two evening-length concerts in modern Panama City.

Ravinia Festival

The Martin Theater
Highland Park, IL
More information: ravinia.org

Featuring Alexander Platt, conductor

Ensemble Dal niente makes its Ravinia Festival debut in a collaborative performance with the Chicago Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center and Writers Theater in an all-American program that celebrates the late Elliott Carter and Leonard Bernstein. Led by conductor Alexander Platt of the Wisconsin Philharmonic and Chicago Opera Theater, the concert features the world premiere of the new, family-sanctioned arrangement of Bernstein’s cycle “Songfest” for vocal soloists and 17 instruments, with Chicago Writers Theater making a special reading of the poetry before each song.

Elliott Carter (1908-2012): A Mirror on Which To Dwell (1975) for soprano and nine players
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)/arr. Platt & Osborne: Songfest (1977) for vocalists and 17 players (World Premiere of arrangement)

The Walden School Residency

Louise Shonk Kelly Recital Hall
Dublin, New Hampshire
More information: waldenschool.org

In its first residency at the prestigious summer music school, Dal Niente partners with the institution’s faculty composers for the Walden School Faculty Commissioning Project. Nearly a week of collaboration, rehearsal, and interaction will give rise to a concert program of brand new works.