Ensemble Dal Niente
Chicago's Ensemble Dal Niente has been a strong advocate for contemporary music, collaborating with top composers on new works and also working with other new music performers. The group has a substantial discography.
Ensemble Dal Niente was formed in 2005 by graduate student composers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. The name means "ensemble from nothing" in Italian and is a tribute to the work Dal Niente (Interieur III) by composer Helmut Lachenmann. The group includes 27 musicians at full strength. That complement can break down into at least four types of ensembles: one performing large works with 20 or more players, one devoted to composer portraits and including five to 13 musicians, one playing small chamber concerts with three to five players, and one, with ensembles of various sizes, devoted to collaborations with theatrical performers and dancers. Ensemble Dal Niente consistently gained attention during its first years, scoring a breakthrough in 2010 when it performed at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse festival in Germany. It returned to that influential festival several more times. In 2013, the group joined saxophonist Ryan Muncy on his album Hot on the New Focus label, and the following year, it recorded Abhanden with cellist Chris Wild on the Navona label. Ensemble Dal Niente continued to record for those two labels.
In addition to frequent performances at leading Chicago venues, where it has performed under "Party" and "Hard Music, Hard Liquor" rubrics, Ensemble Dal Niente has appeared at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., at the Fromm Concerts at Harvard University, and at the St. Paul Chamber orchestra's Liquid Music Series in Minnesota. The group has also toured Latin America, appearing in Colombia, Panama, and Mexico. Its collaborative projects include those with such major composers as Kaija Saariaho, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Chinary Ung, and Andile Khumalo. It also worked over a four-year period with the rock band Deerhoof. On a 2023 recording of Chris Fisher-Lochhead's Wake Up the Dead on the New Focus label, Ensemble Dal Niente joined the JACK Quartet and other important contemporary music performers.
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Discography
9 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Balter / Saunier
Classical - Released by New Amsterdam on 29 Apr 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chris Fisher-Lochhead: Wake Up the Dead
Ensemble Dal Niente, Quince Ensemble, JACK Quartet
Classical - Released by New Focus Recordings on 1 Dec 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Object / Animal
Alternative & Indie - Released by Sideband Records on 25 Mar 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R. Muncy: Hot (Nadia Sirota)
Ryan Muncy, Claire Chase, Nadia Sirota, Ben Melsky, Ensemble Dal Niente, Michael Lewanski
Chamber Music - Released by New Focus Recordings on 1 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mikel Kuehn: Object/Shadow
Classical - Released by New Focus Recordings on 11 Nov 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Eternal Tao
Opera - Released by Ravello Records on 5 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Confined. Speak.
Classical - Released by New Focus Recordings on 5 Nov 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chin: 3 Burials
Dalia Chin, Orquestra Sinfónica de Heredia, Ensemble Dal Niente, Eliza Bangert, Walter Morales, David Cubek
Classical - Released by New Focus Recordings on 9 Feb 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Without Words
Ensemble Dal Niente, Aaron Einbond
Alternative & Indie - Released by Carrier Records on 16 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo