Dal Niente closes this year’s Frequency Festival with a program centered around two world premieres by two of the ensemble’s favorite composers: Aida Shirazi and Hilda Paredes. This is the second of Dal Niente’s large-ensemble Chicago concerts.

The ensemble first worked with Tehran-born Aida Shirazi in 2018, with the workshop and premiere of The Shadow of a Leaf in Water for ensemble and lights. According to Shirazi, her music for solo instruments, voice, ensemble, orchestra, and electronics “mainly focuses on timbre for organizing structures inspired by Persian and English languages and literature.”

Dal Niente recorded Hilda Paredes’ concerto for harp and orchestra, Demente Cuerda, in 2021. One of the leading Mexican composers of her generation, Paredes is known for her poetic approach to composition, her technical brilliance, and her deft interweavings of pre- and post-colonial musical lineages.

Program:

Hilda Paredes, New Work* (2025)

Aida Shirazi, New Work* (2025)

Darlene Castro, Desmoronamiento (rev. 2024)

Karola Obermüller, Reflejos Distantes (2006)