ai ensemble
Based in New York, the ai ensemble is a duo founded by clarinetist Alejandro Acierto and cellist Isabel Castellvi in Chicago 2007 to promote contemporary works for clarinet and cello. Alejandro and Isabel met while pursuing performance degrees at DePaul University and have worked together on several projects including performances with ensemble dal niente, TACTUS, Millennium Chamber Players, and Chicago Composers Forum. Since their conception, they have already had over a dozen works written for them by emerging young composers featured on programs that also included works by established composers such as Xenakis, Lim, Saariaho, and Ran. The 2007-2008 debut season featured 9 concerts in New York and Chicago in various venues, drawing a diverse crowds. This season will feature several premieres, collaborations, and touring. Currently Alejandro and Isabel are pursuing a Master’s Degree at Manhattan School of Music for Contemporary Music Performance.
Isabel Castellvi
Cellist Isabel Castellvi is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Music Performance at Manhattan School of Music, studying with Fred Sherry. Isabel received her B.M. from DePaul University in 2006, where she studied with Katinka Kleijn and Steve Balderston. Previous teachers include Fred Zlotkin and Danny Morganstern. As a versatile musician she performs a broad range of music including contemporary classical, experimental, world, free-improvisation, electro-acoustic, ambient, hip-hop and rock. Collaborative creation is an integral part of her work, which has led to various projects with composers, dance, theater and visual art. Currently she is the cellist for the new music ensembles: ai ensemble, WetInk, ThingNY, dal niente, and TACTUS. She has premiered over 50 compositions. Ongoing collaborations and recent touring include Copal, Love in the Mud; CelloVox; Stone Forest Ensemble; ai ensemble. Past ensembles and performances include The Raw and the Cooked, ICE, Oistrach Orchestra, Millennium Chamber Players, New Millenium Orchestra, Ensemble Akasha and the Accende Ensemble. She has also participated in the SLSQ Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford University, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific in British Columbia, Las Vegas Music Festival and performed a recital and taught in Argentina. Isabel is dedicated to performing for diverse audiences, expanding consciousness and promoting peace.
Alejandro Acierto
Alejandro Acierto is a Chicago clarinetist, composer, and activist living, working, and organizing within the community. He has completed degrees in clarinet performance and composition studies with a minor in Asian American Studies at DePaul University. Currently pursuing a degree in Contemporary Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, he studies with David Krakauer and has worked with teachers John B. Yeh, Julie DeRoche and Wagner Campos in addition to composers Kurt Westerberg, Pat Morehead, and David Smooke. As a performer, Alejandro has performed with several ensembles such as the Millenium Chamber Players, Yes is a World, Chicago Composers Forum, the improvising trio Preclear, and is also a principal and founding member of dal niente and the ai ensemble. He has also performed in such festivals and series as Opera Cabal in Chicago, New Music Northwestern and the New Music Marathon at Northwestern University, and the Midwest Consortium of Graduate Composers. An active performer of new and contemporary classical music, Alejandro has given local premieres by prominent composers such as Giacinto Scelsi, Steve Reich, and Jason Eckart, as well as world premieres by Drew Baker, Kirsten Broberg, and Nicholas DeMaison. As a composer, Alejandro received a Union League Civic and Arts Award for Composition in 2003 and the Sidney and Mary Kleinman Prize in Composition in 2007 for his work ’strangers in our own land’. His current work focuses on using music as a means of social transformation and is committed to playing new works, particularly by historically marginalized people.
MIVOS Quartet
Olivia de Prato and Joshua Modney violins, Victor Lowrie, viola, and Isabel Castellvi, cello.