Ensemble Dal Niente

Date: Sunday, November 20, 2022

Doors: 5PM 

Showtime: 6PM 

Tickets: $20 - General Admission 

‘Service charges apply to ALL ticket purchases (online and box office)’

About: 

Ensemble Dal Niente presents members Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (soprano) and Kyle Flens (percussion) in the gorgeous and romantic catacombs space of the Epiphany Center for the Arts, with a program of new music for voice and percussion that showcases myriad soundworlds and soundscapes that play variously with space, perception, resonance, theatricality, and objects. 

DeBoer Bartlett, praised by the New York Times for her “astonishing display of vocal nimbleness” and by the Chicago Tribune for her “rainwater fresh soprano,” will premiere a new work by Columbian composer (and frequent Dal Niente collaborator) Melissa Vargas, whose Obra para voz sola, espacio y objetos (work for solo voice, space, and objects) will feature four short monologues that take full advantage of the unique performance space. The other world premiere on the program, Emma Hospelhorn’s Lichen Song for soprano and percussion, places the two virtuosos in symbiosis with each other in a shimmering, slow-growing duo that alternately hisses, dips, grooves, and sings. 

Audiences will join in a chorus of small rocks for Lei Liang’s Trans for percussion and audience. Kyle Flens will showcase his “sensitivity to tone color and atypical musical expression” (I Care If You Listen) in the second ever performance of Fred Gifford’s Resonances, which washes the room with gongs, almglocken, and more, while Hannah Barnes’ Ramification features the unique sounds of dipped water gongs, and Anthony R. Green’s Movements in Movement & Sound explores the strange worlds of vibraphone preparations. Special guest John Corkill (Grossman Ensemble, Beyond This Point) joins Flens for Luis Fernando Amaya’s Guerrilla de Dientes Entre los Árboles (Gorilla of Teeth Amongst the Trees), creating vast soundscapes with amplified combs, bottles, planks, and more. 

Program (* indicates world premiere)

Melissa Vargas, Obra para voz sola, espacio y objetos* for soprano

Emma Hospelhorn, Lichen Song* for soprano and percussion

Intermission

Fredrick Gifford, Resonances  for percussion and electronics

Lei Liang, Trans for percussion and audience

Luis Fernando Amaya, Guerrilla de Dientes Entre los Árboles for two percussionists

Hannah Barnes, Ramification for solo percussion

Anthony R Green, Movements in Movement & Sound for solo vibraphone