Ensemble Dal Niente presents flutist Emma Hospelhorn along with fellow ensemble members Caitlin Edwards (violin) and Juan Horie (cello) in the gorgeous catacombs space of the Epiphany Center for the Arts.

PROGRAM (* indicates world premiere) 

Aida Shirazi, Whispering in the Wind (2020) for alto flute solo

Igor Santos, flautando (2024)* for alto flute and violin

Hilda Paredes, Chaczidzib (1992) for piccolo solo

Marcos Balter, delete/control/option (2008) for alto flute and cello

Katinka Kleijn, Free Dive (2021) for improvised flutes, filters, and loopers

Emma Hospelhorn, Logrus Voice II (2024)*

PROGRAM NOTES

Whispering in the Wind (2020)
This short piece is based on an excerpt from a poem by 14th century Iranian classical poet, Hafez. The English translation of the excerpt is as follows:

“When the snare of the tress was loosened from around the lover’s heart,

The lover whispers to Saba wind (east wind, wind of the lovers) to conceal their secret."          

—Aida Shirazi

flautando (2024) * (world premiere)

flautando was commissioned by Emma Hospelhorn for her solo concert at Ensemble Dal Niente’s Presents series. Written for alto flute and violin, the piece explores the fusion of these instruments through shared materials, range, and techniques, including the violin technique “flautando” (a combination of precise control of bow speed and pressure that generates a flute-like sound).The work is structured around fragments of a song by Jackson do Pandeiro called "Canto da Ema," nodding to the commissioner’s first name.

Dedicated to both Emma and Caitlin Edwards, who will premiere the work, "flautando" is an exploration of timbral unity and musical nostalgia.

—Igor Santos

Chaczidzib (1992)

The title of the piece is the name of a red chest bird in Maya and it is taken from an ancient Mayan prophecy:

“The bird Ek Buc, which is the bird dressed in black and the Chaczidzib, the bird dressed in red, the former representing the conqueror and the latter the Indian, would have an encounter, that refers to the war which would be held. The black bird would be wounded and blood would be shed. The idea of blood prevails in the prophecy and its symbol is the red bird. The Ek Buc would go towards the sea, while the red bird would sing farwell. This is the expression of hope that one day this disgraceful age would come to an end”.

– Amerindmaya by Luis Rosado Vega

—Hilda Paredes

delete/control/option (2008)

Part of a collection written between 2007 and 2009 named after computing syntax, delete/control/option is based on the incongruities between voluntary and involuntary actions. Its fragile and meditative surface disguises its quiet virtuosity in which sonic complexity is born not from the written idea but from the physical attempt at recreating it. delete/control/ option was commissioned by Boston's New Gallery Music Series, and it is dedicated to Sarah Brady and Sarah Bob, with admiration and gratitude.  

—Marcos Balter

Free Dive (2021)

Free Dive for flutes, filters and loop pedals was inspired by the existence of the human mammalian dive reflex. Freediving requires a specific kind of meditative state, and free divers feel that they interact more naturally with the animal sea world without dive equipment. Being underwater both physically and aurally always brings me to a different mental state, as does imagining it. With the help of electronic filters, I searched for a process that made a musician descend in a psychological sea and, on the bottom, experience an environment with a kind of almost daunting freedom, and see what they would find.

—Katinka Kleijn

Logrus Voice II (2024) *

Inspired by a fictional chaos construct whose voice changes timbre, gender, and affect from syllable to syllable, my improvised Logrus Voice series juxtaposes fragments from wildly different techniques and playing styles.

—Emma Hospelhorn