Shared Program #1: Norman Long + Ensemble Dal Niente

December 8, 2023
8:00PM
Co-Prosperity Sphere

Set I: Ensemble Dal Niente

Escher Waterfall (variant I) (1997)
For flute, clarinet, vibraphone, and harp

Zimmer IV (2019)
For flute, toy piano, keyboard, and electronics

Performers: Constance Volk, flute; Katie Jimoh, clarinet; Kyle Flens, percussion; Winston Choi, keyboards; Ben Melsky, harp; Hunter Brown, electronics

Set II: Norman Long, electronics

Norman Long’s work focuses on sound art production within the larger context of landscape, revolving around the themes of memory, space, silence and the invisible. His goal as an artist/designer is to create spaces reflecting history, culture and diversity of community and ecology. 

About this Program 

This is the inaugural night in a series of shared programs between Dal Niente and other respected Chicago artists, supported by a DCASE Chicago Artists Recovery Program Grant. Each shared program features music curated by Dal Niente alongside sets by like-minded artists from Chicago’s experimental and improvised music scenes.

About Norman Long

Norman W. Long (b. 1973, Chicago, IL) is a sound artist/designer/composer based in Chicago, IL. His current work focuses on sound art production within the larger context of landscape. He has exhibited and/or performed in galleries in Chicago, Ithaca, New York, London, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The processes involved in his practice lie within the area of field recording, electro-acoustic composition and dub technique. His art/studio practice involves gardening, collecting, performing and recording to create, objects, environments, situations in which the artist and audience are engaged in a dialogue about memory, space, value, silence and the invisible. It is his desire that his practice offers us a space to consider our relationship to sound via social, ecological structures, our interiority and to affirm our existence.

About Ensemble Dal Niente

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 27 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.