[VIvox]^3 by Joan Arnau Pàmies, performed by Fonema Consort

Performed by Felix Del Tredici (trombone), Kathryn Schulmeister (Bass), and Christopher Jones (piano), on November 2013 at the Constellation Theater of Chicago.

Yuunohui'Nahui'Tlapoa'Ehecatl by Julio Estrada, Excerpt

James Dillon, Time Lag Zero

Dust Unsettled, by Mauricio Pauly

Lonesingness by Zesses  Seglias

Recorded at Constellation, Chicago on April 26th, 2015

Caro Cibus, 2013, for female voice, bass clarinet, cello, piano and percussion
Marisol Jiménez, b. 1978

This electroacustic audio visual work presents different symbology that merges the sensual with the spiritual using as metaphor the act of sacrificed flesh for nourishment, and the trivialized violence attached to it, as a mysterious ode to life and death. The text of this piece is derived from the Eucharistic Song for Corpus Christi, here translated from the Latin.

My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. 
He that eateth this bread shall live forever.

Note by the composer


Caro Cibus By Marisol Jiménez, Mvts i - ii, Fonema Consort

Tandem by Chris Fisher Lochhead

soprano and metal object, Nina Dante
flute, Dalia Chin
guitar, Samuel Rowe
accordion, Ryan Packard

recorded by David Zuchowsky
performed at Bond Chapel, Feb. 24
with support from the Goethe Institut and Renaissance Society
Frequency Festival 2016


8 ejercicios para oír lo inaudible by Mesias Maiguashca

Performed by:
Nina Dante, soprano
Dalia Chin, flute
Jonathan Thompson, oboe 
Daniel Walden, piano
Ryan Packard, percussion
Pablo Santiago Chin, conductor

Constellation Chicago, May 1st, 2016 

Texts by Harriet Tubman and John Brown

Nos Qui Captivos Duxerunt By Lewis Nielson

Performed during Fonema Consort's Annual Residency at Saint Xavier University

McGuire Hall
March 17, 2017

Recorded and Mixed by Joshua Thompson

Live Concert at Saint Xavier University, Chicago- 3-16-17

Doublespeak by Bethany Younge

Nina Dante, soprano
Nathalie Colas, soprano
Emily Beisel, bass clarinet
Weston Olencki, trombone
Chris Mercer, electronics

/r/text by Chris Mercer

Coïgitum, by Richard Barrett

Nina Dante, voice
Dalia Chin, flute
Jonathan Thompson, oboe d'amore
Daniel Walden, piano
Ryan Packard, percussion
David Cubek, conductor

Coïgitum, by Richard Barrett

Jonathon Kirk – Spirits and Elements for Soprano, Flute, Soprano Saxophone, Cello, and 4-Channel Electronics (2012) - Note by Etha Williams

Jonathon Kirk's Spirits and Elements takes its text, and title, from a poem by Henry David Thoreau that, true to the Transcendentalist philosophy Thoreau espoused, meditates on the human relationship with nature and spirituality and the yearning to transcend time-bound earthly concerns for higher ones.

In describing how he came to set this text, Kirk cites the influence of Ives – who was likely fascinated by the musicality of both Thoreau's writing and larger philosophical ideals – and further explains that he had long been “struck by the calm mixture of prose and lyrical poetry” in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, the larger collection from which the poem is drawn. (In an interesting parallel to ...sofferte onde serene..., this text, too, is written in memory a close family member of the author: Thoreau's brother John.) Of this text in particular, Kirk notes that “I always thought I could hear Thoreau singing certain moments in the book”; and accordingly, Kirk's setting both draws out and amplifies the  meaning and structure of Thoreau's poetics.

In particular, Kirk, like Thoreau, brings together considerations of art and nature in his rhythmic setting of the poem. He notes that he used mathematical Hidden Markov models – associated with the “invisible structures” of bird song and insect choruses – to “loosely generate various bioacoustical structures algorithmically” that at the same time reflect the free rhythms of Thoreau's poetics. These rhythms, together with the sounds of the accompanying instruments and electronics, emulate the “natural” layers of sound that underpin Thoreau's imagery (“the sweet evening sounds/From your undecaying grounds”); in turn, the vocal part floats above these, sensitively reflecting the parallelisms of Thoreau's poetry – for instance “Night and day/year and year” through paralleled, yet subtly differentiated, musical settings. The vocal setting and free rhythmic character of the piece as a whole matches Thoreau's closing plea to nature: “Cheat me no more with time/take me to your clime.”

Fonema Consort

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