Dal Niente presents Matt Oliphant (horn), Theo Ramsey (violin), and Mabel Kwan (piano), performing a study of silences set in sound.
Dal Niente joins 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 home-season concerts.
Dal Niente closes its Chicago season with a program of wild music including a brand new work for the ensemble by Igor Santos; the U.S. premiere of Luis Fernando Rizo Salom’s energetic, enchanting Quatre Pantomimes; Liza Lim’s alluring Ochred String; and the U.S. premiere of Fausto Romitelli’s Have Your Trip for guitar, mandolin, and harp.
Welcome to the first large-ensemble show in our Chicago season! Join Ensemble Dal Niente for an evening of fresh new music, movement, and sound, featuring works by Wang Lu, Leilehua Lanzilotti, George Lewis, and Carolyn Chen.
Dal Niente teams up with Chicago-based Black chamber music collective, D-Composed, for a free evening of music at the Beverly Arts Center.
Dal Niente is delighted to be a part of Composers Now Dialogues in Chicago on August 17: three composers, three ensembles, three performances, and a composer discussion moderated by the great Tania León. We'll be performing The Wild Iris by Kari Watson, alongside performances by the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and the Grossman Ensemble.
Ensemble Dal Niente teams up with Limerick Rhythms, a new collective featuring Douglas R. Ewart (composer, reeds, percussion, George Floyd Bunt Staff); Renee Baker (composer, violin, viola); Lou Malozzi (composer, live electronics); Rin Peisert (choreographer and dancer); and Cristal Sabbagh (choreographer and dancer). The opening half of the program will feature Dal Niente soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett performing a combination of open-score and improvised works. This is the second in a series of shared programs between Dal Niente and other respected Chicago artists, supported by a DCASE Chicago Artists Recovery Program Grant.
To celebrate his 50th birthday, percussionist Greg Beyer performs the world premieres of new works by David Maki and José Henrique Soares, plus a new arrangement of Afro-Cuban sacred oro seco batá drumming for the Afro-Brazilian berimbau. Joined by some incredibly talented colleagues, friends, and students, this will be a musical celebration to remember.
Featuring special guests:
Mabel Kwan
Juan Pastor
Jean-Christophe LeRoy, Christian Baugher, Jonah Payne
and Arcomusical (Ethan Martin, Raychel Taylor, Matt Schneider)
Geof Bradfield, Dave Miller, and Matt Ulery
Featuring the premiere of a new, concert-length work for three bassoons and electronics, co-composed by Ben Roidl-Ward, Katie Young, and Dana Jessen.
Ensemble Dal Niente presents works by Stanford University graduate composers in a free-to-the-public evening program at Nichols Hall, followed by a reception. The concert will feature four world premieres for large ensemble, and marks the culmination of a week-long residency between Dal Niente and the Stanford music department.
Program (* indicates world premiere)
Clara Allison and Julie Zhu, Lighthouse* for large ensemble
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, In-Betweenness* for large ensemble
Tatiana Catanzaro, Traces fouillis gris pâle presque blanc sur blanc (2007) for violin, viola, and cello
Seán Ó Dálaigh, La luz de la mañana* for large ensemble
Utku Asuroglu, Untitled* for large ensemble
Dal Niente closes the annual Frequency Festival with an ear-bending program of compositions by George Lewis, Rebecca Saunders, Raven Chacon, Nicole Mitchell, and Suzanne Farin.
Step down into the catacombs and experience new music for soprano and percussion, including the premiere of Colombian composer Melissa Vargas’ new epic for solo voice, space, and objects; as well as a new work by Emma Hospelhorn for voice and percussion.
Dal Niente opens its 2022-2023 season with a concert featuring works by groundbreaking composer Carola Bauckholt, whose idiosyncratic, playful, and mind-bending compositions often blur the boundaries between visual arts, musical theater, and concert music. Audiences will experience the world premiere of Bauckholt’s Pacific Time for 13 players, along with her mesmerizing Oh, I See (featuring two giant eyeballs on stage), Vakuum Lieder for soprano with vacuum cleaner, and George Lewis’ large-scale Flux for 16 players. Get Tickets Now
Dal Niente’s annual party has taken many forms over the years, but always features a fascinating range of music and a fluid format. This year’s Party features many small things: small instruments (toy piano, anyone?) small instrumentations, small works, and small scores that expand into big pieces. Featuring music by Sarah Nemtsov, Roscoe Mitchell, inti figgis-vizueta, and more.
Music for flute, harp, viola, and electronics by members of the Chicago Composers Consortium.
Music for large ensemble by George Lewis, Thurman Barker, and Renée Baker. Conducted by Renée Baker and Michael Lewanski. Learn More
Dal Niente teams up with saxophonist Ken Vandermark to play the world premiere of Roscoe Mitchell’s “Last Trane to Clover 5,” as well as compositions by George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, and Fred Anderson. Presented by Ear Taxi and the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Reserve Tickets
Dal Niente performs music by leading Mexican and Argentinian composers, including Nur Slim’s Humming Between Branches for soprano with chamber orchestra, in which the singer’s voice dances between and among wildly varied instrumental textures, which shimmer, dive, and groan with kaliedascopic virtuosity.
Sets by Alejandro Acierto, Mabel Kwan, and Jesse Langen.
In 2019, Ensemble Dal Niente met up in Berlin with the Distractfold Ensemble, a brilliant UK-based new music group, to collaborate on some truly wild music. Now, Distractfold comes to Chicago, where they, along with Dal Niente and Ensemble 20+, will perform music for their blended ensembles, including George Lewis’s Connectome (2019), which was written for Dal Niente, Distractfold, and Ensemble Adapter and premiered in Berlin in 2019.
Dal Niente presents violinist Austin Wulliman along with percussionist Kyle Flens and pianist Winston Choi in a program of works that expand on significant current trends in string writing: post-Lachenmann noise in Ann Cleare's Inner for violin and piano, Andrew Greenwald’s expanded notational and hyper-virtuosic instrumental language, Tyshawn Sorey’s masterful recombination of Feldman-like harmonies with a wide range of musical influences, and Wulliman's own exploration of Just intonation in a new work for solo violin.
Program:
Tyshawn Sorey: Violin and Glockenspiel - In Memorium Muhal Richard Abrams (2018)*
Austin Wulliman: Frame for solo violin (2020)*
Ann Cleare: Inner for violin and piano (2009)*
Elliott Carter: Riconoscenza per Goffredo Petrassi (1984)
Austin Wulliman: Insurgentes Sur for violin and piano (2020)*
Andrew Greenwald: A Thing Made Whole for solo violin (2016)*
Morton Feldman: Vertical Thoughts II for violin and piano (1963)
*Denotes Chicago Premiere
Dal Niente performs world premieres of music for violin, clarinet, flute, cello, and harp by Northwestern University composers, including Lisa Atkinson, George Papajohn, Zoe Morfas, Ruud Roelofsen, Liza Sobel, and Ben Zucker.
Co-imagined by Ensemble Dal Niente and The Boxcar, Open Structures is an improvisational collaboration bringing together ten artists from many disciplines to create a shared language of sound, movement, and space. Guided by director Kristen Johnson, this year-long experiment-in-progress will be open to audiences on January 20, February 3, and February 17, 2020 at The Boxcar (1113 W Berwyn, Chicago). Each evening will include different improvised performances by trios and quartets from the interdisciplinary ensemble, and audiences can expect intimate, engaging experiences in which they witness the creative process in real time.
Co-imagined by Ensemble Dal Niente and The Boxcar, Open Structures is an improvisational collaboration bringing together ten artists from many disciplines to create a shared language of sound, movement, and space. Guided by director Kristen Johnson, this year-long experiment-in-progress will be open to audiences on January 20, February 3, and February 17, 2020 at The Boxcar (1113 W Berwyn, Chicago). Each evening will include different improvised performances by trios and quartets from the interdisciplinary ensemble, and audiences can expect intimate, engaging experiences in which they witness the creative process in real time.
Co-imagined by Ensemble Dal Niente and The Boxcar, Open Structures is an improvisational collaboration bringing together ten artists from many disciplines to create a shared language of sound, movement, and space. Guided by director Kristen Johnson, this year-long experiment-in-progress will be open to audiences on January 20, February 3, and February 17, 2020 at The Boxcar (1113 W Berwyn, Chicago). Each evening will include different improvised performances by trios and quartets from the interdisciplinary ensemble, and audiences can expect intimate, engaging experiences in which they witness the creative process in real time.
Oboist Andy Nogal takes a star turn with a program of duo music for oboe and piano that showcases the expressive and technical potential of the oboe as a tool for experimenting with sound and harmony. With pianist Daniel Pesca, who has been Nogal’s duo partner since 2010.
Kyle Flens plays works for percussion by some of his favorite Chicago collaborators in this concert of solos and duos, in which the instruments onstage come alive in different ways. Fellow Dal Niente members Ben Melsky, Jesse Langen, and Katherine Schoepflin Jimoh guest star.
Celebrate the opening of the Dal Niente season with a concert celebrating the album release of Ben Melsky/ Ensemble Dal Niente on New Focus Recordings! The show will feature live performances of several tracks off of the album, along with larger works by Tim Page, Carola Bauckholt, and Alican Çamci.
SUNDAY JUNE 16, 2019 @ 3PM (VIP)/ 4PM (General)
It's time for Dal Niente's 2019 Party! This year's Party features the Chicago premiere of Anthony Cheung's new work, co-commissioned with the L.A. Philharmonic, as well as works by Erin Gee and Igor Santos.
Tickets are $80 VIP, $50 general, and $25 student online, or $90/$60/$30 at the door. VIP tickets include admission to a special pre-concert VIP hour from 3-4 PM, full open bar (beer, wine, and cocktails), and food, with a special group ticket price of $300 for a table of four. The general ticket price includes an open bar and food, while the student ticket price includes food and a cash bar.
PROGRAM:
Erin Gee- Segment of the 4th letter (2007) for bass flute, Bb clarinet, percussion, viola, cello
Anthony Cheung - new work for large ensemble (2019) (Chicago Premiere)*
Igor Santos - two, two (2015) for octet
Anthony Braxton - Composition nos. 193 (1996) & 228 (1997) for large ensemble
Emma Hospelhorn - Crust, Mantle, Core (2019) for flute
Kyong Mee Choi - Vanished (2019) for harp and electronics
Live DJ set by Murat Çolak
*This work is supported in part by Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.
Ensemble Dal Niente performs new works by undergraduate composers at the University of Chicago.
The Dal Niente Wind Trio (Emma Hospelhorn, Andy Nogal, and Katie Schoepflin) is thrilled to premiere Undersea, a new work for piccolo, English horn, and bass clarinet by composer Victoria Cheah, as part of a varied concert that features the full array of sounds available to contemporary woodwind players, from kaleidoscopic quarter tones, to ethereal trills, to jazzy pizzicatos. The flute, clarinet, and oboe blend together in wildly different sonic palettes that alternately sing, squeak, and pizzicato, with sounds that range from the delicate to the bombastic.
Cellist Chris Wild and violinist Tarn Travers join forces to present a recital of string duos and solos at Andersonville’s Ebenezer Lutheran Church. Titled Old and New, the evening’s program features contemporary chamber music inspired by Renaissance era practices of musical ornamentation, presented alongside examples of such inspiration.
For the closing concert of Constellation’s annual Frequency Festival, Dal Niente brings two incredible composers back to Chicago with world premieres from Viola Yip and Ted Hearne.
![Ensemble Dal Niente: Humming Between Branches [Library of Congress Webcast]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55aede63e4b0d3eba6378c8a/1602019634511-MO1M1LV9WQKH3Y15BMI4/Whirpools+of+Time-3.png)
