Members of acclaimed Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente—Connie Volk, flute, and Katie Jimoh, clarinet—join faculty soprano Carrie Shaw in performing works for voice and winds by Volk, Luis Naòn, Jérôme Combier, and a newly commissioned work by Sky Macklay. Shaw is joined by soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah in performing duets for voice by Farzia Fallah.
Program
Ich und du, Baum und Regen (2009): Farzia Fallah (b. 1980)
Danielle Reutter-Harrah and Carrie Shaw, voice
Ultimos Movimientos (2014) *US premiere*: Luis Naon (b. 1961)
I. Puntuaciones
II. Materia Es el Motivo
III. Onán en la Escritura
IV. Madre Materia
V. Métrica
VI. Pasan los Muertos
VII. Hastío de la Trama
Katherine Jimoh, clarinet
(Recorded sounds, Francoise Kubler, soprano, and Armand Angstert, clarinet)
Mnemonic Songs (2024): Sky Macklay (b. 1988)
Newly commissioned arrangement
I. Opening Prayer
II. Auricularia auricula
III. Laetiporus sulphureus
IV. Tremella mesenterica
V. Pleurotus ostreatus
VI. Morchella esculenta
VII. Cantharellus cibarius
VIII. Omphalotus illudens
IX. Boletus edulis
X. Psilocybe cubensis
Constance Volk, flute
Katie Jimoh, clarinet in Bb and bass clarinet
PAUSE
not quite existing leaves little to fake (2024): Constance Volk
Constance Volk, flutes
Katherine Jimoh, clarinets
The Last Ebb (2019) Jerome Combier (b. 1970)
I. du silence (ground)
II. long sole sound (roundelay)
III. The last ebb (cradle song)
IV. The summer rains on my life (passacaglia)
Constance Volk, flute and bass flute
Katie Jimoh, clarinet in Bb and bass clarinet
Notes and Translations
I’m so grateful to Katie, Connie, and Danielle for joining me in this program, and to Sky for indulging my nerd love for her harmonica trees. I love electronics and the complexities that we are now capable of achieving in microtonal and aleatoric notation, but I equally love ideas that result in physical objects that the audience can easily take in, and the harmonishroom is everything I hoped it would be.
In teaching performance, I often find myself wanting to push back against the idea of written word as a starting point for artistic growth; the ‘civilization of paper and signs’ as Rodolfo Fogwill puts it, originally comes from shadowy places in the mind that must be drawn up and out imperfectly onto a page. The things that we capture in books and scores were once full of breath and blood and life and informed by memories and glimpses of things that are real and true in themselves. When we put them onto paper, they become shareable in a way, immortal in a way, but also a tool of control, a labor of human failure (perhaps a reason to keep working), a way to reconstruct bits and pieces of what once existed into a narrative that serves us. So to my fellow singers in the audience, I invite you to consider how your thoughts become breath and sound and how you can explore the idea of starting your creative life from the constantly shifting flickers and echoes of your own inner voice.
Ich und Du, Baum und Regen
Music by Farzia Fallah
Text by Ahmad Shamloo
I am the spring
You are the earth
I am the earth
You are the tree
I am the tree
You are the spring.
Caressed by rain’s fingers
I become a garden
Exhalted in the middle of the forest.
Mnemonic Songs for Mushroom Hunters
By Sky Macklay
- Opening prayer
Oh my! Oh my!
Oh, mycelium in earth and in trees,
Hollowed be thy fruiting bodies.
Give us this day the moisture to fill your cells.
Give us keen eyes to see you well.
Grant us the wisdom to eat only the mushroom
That we definitively I.D.!
- Auricularia aricula
The woods have ears
When a tree is dying.
Auricularia aricula
Genus: Auricularia
Ear-shaped to hear an aria
Auricularia
Species: auricula
Sucking life from trees like Dracula
Auricula
Auricularia aricula
Aria Dracula,
Suck and hear
Wood ears.
Stemless and brown, moist and gelatinous
Growing alone or in an overlapping group,
Perfect for hot and sour soup.
- Laetiporus sulphureus
Laetiporus sulphureus
I hear it tastes like chicken.
Looks like spray foam insulation,
With orange and yellow pigmentation.
Laetiporus
Lae as in laying eggs
Laetiporus like a chicken chorus, (cluck cluck cluck)
Sulphureus
Sulphur yellow and so luxurious!
And I hear it tastes like chicken, chicken of the woods.
- Tremella mesenterica
Old Tremella lives deep in the woods, the children in town all say she’s a witch.
Her house may be small and she hasn’t a car, but measured in butter, Tremella is rich!
Tremella mesenterica,
Bright yella mass hysterica!
She hunts and she gathers the branch-perching brains, so tiny and gloopy it takes her all week.
To find enough fungus to simmer and dry into candy the brave trick-or-treaters will seek.
Tremella mesenterica, witch’s butter
Bright yella mass hysterica
On Halloween night when she opens her door, the parents are shocked by her savory teat.
Unwrapped homemade candy is sketchy and weird, “she’s dangerous!” is the word on the street.
Tremella mesenterica, witch’s butter witch’s
Bright yella mass hysterica, riches utter riches
“Avoid her” they write on the neighborhood app, it’s vital to keep all the children away!
She cackles and writes “more for me!” on the post, and feasts in peace on her witch’s buffet.
Tremella mesenterica, witch’s butter witch’s
Bright yella mass hysterica, riches utter riches
- Pleurotus ostreatus
Pleurotus ostreatus,
Bay oysters on the loose,
Without the ocean juice,
Folic among the moose.
Pleurotus ostreatus,
Use trees to reproduce,
But never on a spruce,
Only decidu-oos.
Pleurotus ostreatus,
Stacked up like a caboose,
Gilled stems help you deduce,
Delicious ostreatus.
- Morchella esculenta
Spring rains bring out your umbrella,
Spring rains bring out the Morchella,
Morchella esculenta, tasty morels!
Everybody wants esculenta,
On their pasta, in their polenta,
Morchella esculenta, tasty morels!
Hollow on the inside,
Honeycomb cap,
Spring rains bring out your umbrella,
Spring rains bring out the Morchella,
Morchella esculenta, tasty morels!
Everybody wants esculenta,
On their pasta, in their polenta,
Morchella esculenta, tasty morels!
Hollow on the inside,
Honeycomb cap, morel
Rising from the ashes, tasty morels!
Morel!
- Cantharellus cibarius
Assuming I name my hypothetical future daughter after a mushroom,
she will be Chanterelle!
Cantharellus
can’t be jealous
of any other delicacy
with flavor this nutty and heavenly
Cantharellus cibarius
color of a yellow bus but lighter inside.
Cantharellus
I will be zealously
looking under every tree
checking for shallow gills that make a V.
Cantharellus cibarius
color of a yellow bus but lighter inside.
Ah ha! Ah ha! Ah ha!
Checking for shallow gills that make a V!
- Omphalotus illudens
Omphalotus illudens,
also known as Jack ‘O Lanter-ens,
bioluminescent mushroom friends.
They may look like a Chanterelle,
but eating them will take you to digestive hell.
Learn the differences well.
Jacks are pumpkin orange through and through,
While inside Chanterelles is a whiter hue.
Jacks grow in connected groups.
Chanterelles grow alone.
Cadenza: Chanterelle or Jack ‘O Lantern?
Is it a
Chanterelle or Jack ‘O Lantern?
- Boletus edulis
bo bo bo bo bo bole bole bole bloe
roly poly bolete!
Boletus edulis
West coast king, west coast king!
Tap the cap, spread the spores
Spongey pores
bo bo boletus so so so majestic!
- Psilocybe cubensis
Oh my, Psilocybe
Oh my, Psilocybe
Psilocybe cubensis
Oh, mycelium in earth and in trees,
Hollowed be thy fruiting bodies.
Give us this day the moisture to fill your cells.
Give us keen eyes to see you well.
Grant us the wisdom, grant us the wisdom, grant us the wisdom
Grant us the wisdom in an overlapping group
wisdom in an overlapping group
bay oysters on the loop
wisdom in an overlapping group
bay oysters on the loop, bay oysters on the loop
Are pumpkins orange through and through?
While inside Chanterelles is a lighter you.
Inside Chanterelles is a lighter you.
A lighter you.
Grant us the wisdom, to eat only the mushroom, that we definitively I AM GOD!
Ultimos Movimientos
Music by Luis Naón
Text by Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill
La coma, el intervalo de respirar, El punto : la señal de su espera de lo que viene. Es el que lee y oye su voz o alguna voz, venida de la memoria o de un fondo Supuesto, imaginario.
Y lo que queda en el papel. Trabajo humano, la civilizacion de los papeles y los signos, el tiempo, y el polve que sepulta tantas cosas inútiles que yacen :¡libros!
Y todo eso y la libertada : Banderas de abundancia y olvido. |
The comma, the interval of breathing, The period : the sign of waiting of what is to come. It is that which reads and hears your voice or some voice, that comes from memory or the bottom of something Supposed, imaginary.
And that which remains on paper. Human work, the civilization of papers and signs, time, and the dust that buries so many useless things lying around: books!
And all that and freedom: Flags of abundance and forgetfulness. |
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II. Materia es el motivo
Sí: es la materia. Causa y finalidad del ruido del poema. Motivo : movimiento. Ruido para la nuez de la garganta y la piedra que gira en la cabeza y a veces entrechoca piedras y brillos de sangre. Sangre materia. Pulso : número entrecortado de la sangre. El pulso es el motivo, y la insistencia del motivo y del cuerpo. El cuerpo insiste : traza marcas, versos, señales de la mente en la mente Materia del deseo. |
II. Matter is the motive
Yes: it is the matter. Cause and purpose of the noise in the poem. Reason : movement. Noise for the nut of the throat and for the stone that spins in the head and sometimes it clashes stones and sparkles of blood. Blood matter. Pulse: choppy count of blood. The pulse is the motive, and the insistence of the motive and of the body. The body insists: trace marks, verses, signs from mind to mind Matter of desire. |
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III. Onán en la escritura
La escrituras cuentan otra historia de Onán Su repudio parcial de la mujer, la viuda de su hermano impuesta por la ley. El deseo de su cuerpo - hundirlo, penetrarlo - ardía.
Pero el desprecio de su estirpe lo llevaba a vertir sus jugos en la tierra negándole los hijos a esa mujer, y por ella a La Ley.
Amaba Onán como un carnerdo o como un toro pero sólo reproducía sus actos, no carne ni cuerpos para la guerra ni para los trabajos del rey y los profetas. |
III. Onán in the scriptures
The scriptures tell another story of Onan His partial rejection of the woman, the widow of his brother, imposed upon him by law. The desire of his body - sinking it, penetrating it - burned.
But the contempt of her lineage made him pour his juices on the earth denying His children, to that woman, and through her to The Law.
Onan loved like a ram or like a bull but he only reproduced their actions, not meat nor bodies for war nor for the works of the king and the prophets. |
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IV. Madre Materia Hace lo inmaterial desde los ruidos limpiándolos, borrando ecos recombiando para que sean sonidos y vibren justo sin existir en el espacio, en la materia del air
Casi lo inmaterial logrado.
Pero después de cada palabra recupera su mundo : sombras, ecos, recuerdos ideas embrionarias efectos de otros mundos inesperados.
Es el fracaso de la materia humana.
Es el trabajo humano Con el fracaso interpretado : buena razón para insistir. |
IV. Mother Matter Makes the immaterial Out of noises, cleaning them, erasing echoes, recombining so that they become sounds and vibrate without existing in space, in the matter of air.
Almost the immaterial achieved.
But after each word recovers its world : shadows, echoes, memories embryonic ideas effects of other worlds unexpected.
It is the failure of human matter.
It is human work With failure interpreted : A good reason to carry on. |
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V. Métrica A la hora del té, si oye el sonido té, ve una tacita en el centro del verso y a la derecha e izquierda la simetría bilateral de dos manos qui dividen el día en grupos de cinco sílabas.
Horas endecasílabas del té. Horas en punto de la tarde. Horas a punto de escaparse por el vacío de la frase que descubre una memoria de té y de madre en la lengua materna. |
V. Metric At tea time, if you hear the sound tea, you see a little cup in the center of the verse and to the right and left the bilateral symmetry of two hands that divide the day into groups of five syllables.
Hendecasyllabic hours of tea. Hours just in the afternoon. Hours about to escape through the emptiness of the phrase that reveals a memory of tea and of mother in the mother tongue. |
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VI. Pasan Los Muertos
Y cuántos son, y cómo su suman por la gracia de disolverse, y la magia de su sagrada descomposición. Y el arte de enterrarlos, negarlos y volverlos relatos en la memoria. Un desfile de nombres, imágenes veladas, sonrisas, rictus, guiños de una luz que pasó. O de una sombra que atraviesa el tiempo con todo el movimiento del día. |
VI. The Dead Pass
And how many there are, and how they add up by the grace of dissolving, and the magic of their sacred decomposition. And the art of burying them, denying them and turning them into stories in memory. A parade of names, veiled images, smiles, winces, winks of a light that passed. Or a shadow that crosses time with all the movement of the day. |
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VII. Hastio de la Trama No es el hastío ni el hasta ahí geométrico ni el hartazgo de los dibujos ni la torsión calculada del hilo.
Será la regularidad, la causa repetitiva de las formas, la paciencia del hombre como renuncia, y lo que se dispone a ser : un hacer que no acierta a saber qué es, e insiste y teje su trama alrededor del vacío. |
VII. Plot Ennui It is not the boredom or this “up to here” geometry or the dreary repetition of the drawings or the calculated twisting of the thread.
It will be the regularity, the repetitive cause of forms, the patience of man as renunciation, and what he prepares to be : a doing that does not know what it is, and carries on and weaves its plot around the void. |
The Last Ebb
Music by Jérôme Combier
Text by Samuel Beckett
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I. du silence (ground) musique de l’indifférence (translated by Beckett) |
I. The Music of Indifference The music of indifference |
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II. long sole sound (roundelay) on all that strand |
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III. The last ebb (cradle song) again the last ebb |
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IV. The summer rain rains on my life (passacaglia) My way is in the sand flowing My peace is there in the receding mist |
Biographies
Ensemble Dal Niente
Ensemble Dal Niente performs new and experimental chamber music with dedication, virtuosity, and an exploratory spirit. Flexible and adaptable, Dal Niente’s roster of 27 musicians presents an uncommonly broad range of contemporary music, guiding listeners towards music that transforms existing ideas and subverts convention. 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.
Katherine Jimoh, clarinetist, vocalist, pianist, singer-songwriter and goldsmith lives in Chicago and works as a freelance musician and jeweler. She is a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble and Chicago Wind Project. Working side-by-side with living composers while surrounded by colleagues who specialize in new music provides constant inspiration and creativity.
Katherine leads her four-piece band, Katet as singer-songwriter and pianist. When tonality is achieved in an utterly unpredictable way, Katherine feels satisfied with her songwriting. Complex harmonies matched with mixed meters, drones and simple vocal lines equals Katet.
Constance Volk is a musician, a painter, and an illustrator. She is a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, the Grossman Ensemble and the Chicago Wind project. She has collaborated with Lookingglass Theater, Eighth Blackbird, and Third Coast Percussion. She has exhibited paintings at Bridgeport Art Center, Miller Beach Arts and Creative District, and Rendezvous Arts. Her illustrations are featured with ‘Density Seeds’, an offshoot of the ‘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
Carrie Henneman Shaw joined the Voice Program as an artist in residence in Autumn 2020. As a singer, Carrie engages in a wide variety of musical projects, but she focuses on early and contemporary music. In 2023, she was awarded a Royalty Research Fund grant to research and record experiments in vocal timbre with composer Mauricio Pauly and pianist Mabel Kwan. In 2024, she was awarded the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Faculty Fellowship for Excellence.
A sample of her work includes an upcoming solo recording on Naxos Records of early 18th-century French song; creating music for a live-music-for-dance project with James Sewell Ballet; and collaborating on a recording with the band Deerhoof. Carrie is a two-time winner of a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, and she is a member of two groups that focus on music by living composers, Ensemble Dal Niente, a mixed chamber collective, and Quince Ensemble, a treble voice quartet.
She appears in numerous recordings ranging from medieval sacred music to a video-game soundtrack, and before coming to the UW, she has been maintaining a full university studio for the six years and participating in educational residencies for composers and performers around the country, including UC-Berkeley, Stanford, New York University, the University of Chicago, and beyond.