Ensemble Dal Niente
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano
Constance Volk, flute
Kathryn Schulmeister, double bass
Ben Melsky, harp
28/78 New Music Collective
Monday, November 10, 2025
7:30 pm
Recital Hall
Mariposa (2025) Edmund Bascon (b. 2003)
Kamron Qasimi (b. 2005)
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano
Constance Volk, flute
Kathryn Schulmeister, bass
Ben Melsky, harp
Rebecca Saunders (b. 1967)
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano
Constance Volk, flute
Yi Ting Lu (b. 1993)
Ben Melsky, harp
Tomás Gueglio (b. 1981)
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano
Kathryn Schulmeister, bass
28/78 New Music Collective Artificial Life 2007 (2007)
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano
Constance Volk, flute
Kathryn Schulmeister, bass
Ben Melsky, harp
George Lewis (b. 1952)
PROGRAM NOTES
Bascon: Mariposa
(Edmund Bascon ‘26 is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in music education and in music composition at University of the Pacific.)
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet who was active during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Lauded by literary critic Edmund Wilson as "one of the only poets writing in English in our time who have attained to anything like the stature of great literary figures,'' she was the first woman and second person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. However, as times and styles changed, she fell out of fashion and is less remembered today.
“Mariposa,” published at the height of Millay’s fame in 1921, ironically contains themes relating to the fleeting, temporary nature of our life and experiences. “Death comes in a day or two,” but not in a foreboding or negative way. If anything, the narrator is more concerned with you “suffering to take [their] hand,” to appreciate and cherish the fleeting moments of beauty before they fade away.
—Edmund Bascon
Bascon: Mariposa
Butterflies are white and blue
In this field we wander through. Suffer me to take your hand. Death comes in a day or two.
All the things we ever knew Will be ashes in that hour, Mark the transient butterfly, How he hangs upon the flower.
Suffer me to take your hand. Suffer me to cherish you Till the dawn is in the sky. Whether I be false or true, Death comes in a day or two.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay
PROGRAM NOTES
Qasimi: Universal Alchemy
(Kamron Qasimi ‘27 is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in music composition at University of the Pacific.)
Louise Bogan’s poem, “The Alchemist,” is one that laments the inability of the human mind to fully devote itself to any certain task or passion. We are human and we have earthly needs that cannot be ignored, such as love and companionship. The poem uses the parallel of the alchemist, a figure who has never succeeded in turning lead into gold, to amplify the message. It is my intention that the music serves as a vehicle to get that message across to the listener as well.
—Kamron Qasimi
Qasimi: Universal Alchemy
I burned my life, that I might find A passion wholly of the mind, Thought divorced from eye and bone, Ecstasy come to breath alone. I broke my life, to seek relief From the flawed light of love and grief.
With mounting beat the utter fire Charred existence and desire. It died low, ceased its sudden thresh. I had found unmysterious flesh— Not the mind’s avid substance—still Passionate beyond the will.
Saunders: O Yes & I
—Louise Bogan
O Yes & I is module 4 of 28 modules which make up Yes (2017), an 82-minute large scale spatialized performance work, which explores parts of Molly Bloom’s monologue, the final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses. This new version is expanded and completely re-worked.
O Yes & I was written for Juliet Fraser and Helen Bledsoe for the Louth Contemporary Music Festival The Book of Hours. With my grateful thanks to the sopranos Juliet Fraser, Donatienne Michel-Dansac and Sarah Sun, and the flautists Helen Bledsoe, Eva Furrer and Bettina Junge.
—Rebecca Saunders
PROGRAM NOTES
Lu: Half Decorations
Half Decorations exhibits a movement from an aural sensation toward a visual scene. Moments of stasis can function as oppositional poles: establishing a relative standard from which to measure moments of dynamism. From stasis, the sound rebuilds the sensation of time; from stasis, materials emerge—oozing from a static background into something vital. As a single sound source unfolds to reveal the complexities within, the piece brings the physicality of performance to attention, and the instrument ultimately transforms from sonic into a visual installation.
Gueglio: Murmelnszenen
Murmelnszenen I is the first piece of the Murmelnszenen cycle. It was commissioned by Departure Duo and premiered in February of 2024. It is a collection of eight short vignettes divided by rests or brief interludes. The eight vignettes are grouped into two movements. The first movement is active (marked scorrevole), the second suspended and pensive. The central concept of the piece is the idea of ‘murmur’ (‘Murmeln' in German). Soprano Nina Guo, who premiered the work, states: “Murmelnszenen somehow resembles listening to a soap-opera through a wall: we only partially hear what is going on, yet are able to pick up a general melodramatic mood, the overblown intensity of it all.” As with my previous cycle of vocal works, Ciclo Lamarque, the text for Murmelnszenen is sourced from an Argentine melodrama from the 1940s.
—Tomás Gueglio
Lewis: Artificial Life 2007
Artificial Life 2007 is a situational-form musical composition designed for ensembles of between eight and thirty (or more) players. The work presents a model of group improvisation as an emergent phenomenon arising from negotiation and local intelligence.
AL2007 is partially open in terms of scale, duration, and instrumentation; there is no centralized score, and no conductor is needed. The work consists of two “pages” that provide a set of quasi-algorithmic procedures for structuring musical communication, facilitating the articulation and circulation of relationships, forms, and recurrences among individual performers or groups of performers who are acting in concert to create music in real time. Either or both pages may be performed in any order (or even simultaneously), using any permitted ensemble organization scheme.
—Yi-Ting Lu
PROGRAM NOTES
The sounds and silences are produced according to the improvisors’ intuition and considered judgment. There is usually no rush to perform any task or procedure, and moments where no sound is being made need not be considered awkward. There is no need on the part of the performers to articulate or impose global form, teleologies, or contrasts. Any articulation, bowing, instrument, muting, or other effect is permitted unless an instruction indicates otherwise. Players are asked to follow their own parts, and to avoid asserting ensembles with other groups or individuals or initiating call-and-response interactions unless an instruction asks them to do so. However, since this is a situational and relational work with many, many generative possibilities, it is important to be aware of the sonic environment at all times.
Artificial Life 2007 is open to performers from any musical tradition, including those that do not regularly include improvisative modes of performance. Extensive prior experience with improvisation, while welcome, does not necessarily confer an advantage in performing this deceptively complex work; the best results will be achieved by reading and following the instructions provided with care. The instructions serve as a kind of toolbox for producing a range of sounds and forms that will far exceed what the composer would imagine. For that reason, there is no canonically correct way for the piece to sound. Rather than assuming that recorded or live versions of the work might constitute a model for how the work should sound, performers should assume the freedom to create what they want to hear from a combination of the tools provided and their own creative and cultural standpoints.
Even so, as with all improvisations, including our everyday-life human efforts, the success of a given performance of this work will be less a question of individual freedom than of the assumption of personal responsibility for the sonic environment.
Artificial Life 2007 was created for the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra under a commission from the Scottish Arts Council. The work received its premiere on December 6, 2007, at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.
—George Lewis
Ensemble Dal Niente performs, develops, and sustains new and experimental music for small to large chamber ensemble. We are dedicated to growing relationships with artists, composers, and listeners; advancing distinct and challenging musical voices; and sharing that work with our Chicago, U.S., and international communities. Dal Niente’s roster of 26 musicians presents an uncommonly broad range of contemporary music. Audiences coming to Dal Niente shows can expect distinctive productions—from fully staged operas to multimedia spectacles to intimate solo performances—that are curated to pique curiosity and connect art, culture, and people.
Over the past two decades, Ensemble Dal Niente has performed concerts across Europe and the Americas, including appearances at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC; The Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico City; Radialsystem Berlin, MusicArte Festival in Panama City; The Library of Congress and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.; the Art Institute of Chicago and the Hyde Park Jazz Festival; Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; The Americas Society; and the Darmstadt Summer Courses in Germany. Dal Niente is the recipient of the 2019 Fromm Music Foundation prize and was the first-ever ensemble to win the Kranichstein prize for interpretation in 2012. The group has recordings available on the New World, New Amsterdam, New Focus, Navona, Parlour Tapes+, Kairos, Albany, and Carrier labels; has held residencies at The University of Chicago, Harvard University, Stanford University, Brown University, Brandeis University, and Northwestern University, among others; and collaborated with a wide range of composers, from Enno Poppe to George Lewis to Hilda Paredes to Roscoe Mitchell.
The ensemble's name, Dal Niente ("from nothing" in Italian), is a tribute to Helmut Lachenmann's Dal niente (Interieur III), a work that upended traditional conceptions of instrumental technique, and also a reference to the group’s humble beginnings.
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, DMA is a classical vocalist and singer-songwriter based in Chicago, IL. She is a founding member of Quince Ensemble, a contemporary and experimental treble voice ensemble, and Hasco Duo, an experimental improvisation and songwriting project. She is also a member of the award- winning and internationally recognized Ensemble Dal Niente. She regularly performs her own original songs solo, with her duo partner Jesse Langen, or with full band.
DeBoer maintains an active national and international performance Schedule. Recent highlights include the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival in Washington, the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico City, the Kody Festival in Poland, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Her debut album of original songs, The Bones Still Glow, was released in February of 2023, and her sophomore album, Braided Together, was released June 6, 2025, both on Caillonia Records. Along with her solo work, DeBoer is featured on albums with Ensemble Dal Niente, Quince Ensemble, electronica artist Holly Herndon, Deerhoof, Timothy Daisy, Hasco Duo, and more.
In 2014 she founded Omaha Under the Radar, an annual four-day experimental performance festival, year-round concert series, and educational program which has presented over 400 individual artists in its nine seasons.
Born and raised in Omaha, NE, DeBoer moved to Chicago to study at DePaul University where she received a Bachelor of Music. She received a master’s degree from the University at Buffalo, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in contemporary music from Bowling Green State University.
Constance Volk is a musician, painter, and illustrator. She is a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, the Grossman Ensemble, and the Chicago Wind project. She has collaborated with Third Coast Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, and Eighth Blackbird. She has exhibited paintings at Bridgeport Art Center, Old Town Art Fair and Rendezvous Arts. Her illustrations are featured with ‘Density Seeds’, an offshoot of Claire Chase’s ‘Density 2036’ solo flute repertoire project. Constance is the creator of ‘Connie’s Characters’, a series of mix and match coloring books full of wacky weirdos. Her paintings, poster art, coloring books and music can be found at constancevolk.com.
Dedicated to connecting audiences to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Chicago-based harpist Ben Melsky is executive director and harpist of the internationally acclaimed Ensemble Dal Niente. In close collaboration with composers and performers he encourages the creation of new work to break pre-conceived notions of the harp’s capabilities, activating new techniques, sounds, and performance practices.
Melsky is a core member of the Grossman Ensemble, the resident ensemble of the University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Composition—an initiative spearheaded by composer Augusta Read Thomas—comprised of thirteen of the country’s leading contemporary music specialists. And since 2011, Melsky has served as principal harpist of the Joffrey Ballet. He has played with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Music Festival, Ann Arbor Symphony, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater and has played in Jeff-Award winning musicals Sunday in Park with George and Follies at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, A Little Night Music at Writer’s Theater, Animal Crackers at the Goodman Theater, and East of Eden at Steppenwolf Theater.
His discography includes: Ben Melsky / Ensemble Dal Niente (New Focus Records) called "simultaneously an outstanding academic source for the harp and an emotional voyage for the casual listener" by I Care If You Listen, Assemblage (New World Records) an Ensemble Dal Niente portrait album of American composer and scholar George Lewis which was named “Best of 2017” by the National Sawdust Log and one of the “Notable performances and recordings of 2017” by Alex Ross; Balter / Saunier (New Amsterdam Records) Dal Niente’s collaboration with rock band Deerhoof called “a weird and wonderful musical exchange” by Pitchfork Magazine. Melsky was a featured musician in the Washington Post’s “23 for ’23: Composers and performers to watch this year.”
Melsky received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from Northwestern University where he studied with Elizabeth Cifani and also where he received both his BM and MM. He was a participant in the 2016 Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music where he worked with harpist Gunnhildur Einarsdottir. Records (2019).
Hawai‘i-born bassist Kathryn Schulmeister is an assistant professor of practice in double bass at University of the Pacific.
Praised for her “expressive and captivating performance” (Grammy.com), she enjoys a creative music practice as a versatile performer, educator and researcher. Recent honors include a 2020 Grammy Award nomination as a collaborating artist featured on Susan Narucki’s The Edge of Silence, a contemporary classical album of chamber works by György Kurtág on AVIE Records (2019).
Schulmeister has appeared as a soloist with leading international contemporary ensembles including Klangforum Wien, the ELISION Ensemble and Ensemble Vertixe Sonora. She has given solo performances at venues and festivals around the world including the Melbourne Recital Centre, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ECLAT Festival Neue Musik Stuttgart, San Diego Museum of Making Music, soundSCAPE Festival, Vértice Festival and the Clive Davis Theater at the Grammy Museum. She is a member of the ELISION Ensemble, Fonema Consort, and Echoi Ensemble. She has performed as a guest artist with various adventurous ensembles including Delirium Musicum, Ensemble MusikFabrik, SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg, Wild Up! and Ensemble Dal Niente.
28/78 New Music Collective was founded by University of the Pacific's conservatory students in 2018. Members of the collective come together from various degree programs and musical backgrounds to explore contemporary music in a project-based environment. The group has produced festivals, commissioned new works from living composers, and released albums of new music, most recently Voice Memories (2025, Pac Ave Records). Pacific professors Eric Dudley and Andrew Conklin serve as the collective’s faculty advisors.
Mitchell Amos, Edmund Bascon, and Andrew Seaver, clarinets
Jas Lopez, horn
Jayden Laumeister, trombone
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