Grammy-Award winning vocal project Roomful of Teeth and Dublin Guitar Quartet to unite for innovative performance
The two groundbreaking ensembles will perform works by Nico Muhly, Philip Glass, Bryce Dessner, and others.
Two award-winning contemporary music ensembles will unite at Interlochen’s Dendrinos Chapel and Recital Hall on Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m. as vocal octet Roomful of Teeth performs with the world-renowned Dublin Guitar Quartet.
The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth combines singing techniques from around the world into a bold reimagining of the human voice. The Dublin Guitar Quartet brings their eight and eleven-string guitars and contemporary expertise to this innovative collaboration.
Tickets are $34 for adults and $14 for students and can be purchased at tickets.interlochen.org or by calling the Interlochen Box Office at 800.681.5920.
As part of the program, Roomful of Teeth and Dublin Guitar Quartet will perform Nico Muhly’s How Little You Are. Originally commissioned in 2015 for three guitar quartets and massed choir, the work is based on texts written by pioneer women during the 19th century. Other repertoire includes String Quartet No. 2 (“Company”) by Philip Glass and “Aheym” by Bryce Dessner.
Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, Roomful of Teeth gathers annually at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts, where they’ve studied with some of the world’s top performers and teachers in Tuvan throat singing, yodeling, Broadway belting, Inuit throat singing, Korean p’ansori, Georgian singing, Sardinian cantu a tenore, Hindustani music, Persian classical singing, and death metal singing. Commissioned composers include Rinde Eckert, Fred Hersch, Merrill Garbus (of tUnE-yArDs), William Brittelle, Toby Twining, Missy Mazzoli, Julia Wolfe, Ted Hearne, and Ambrose Akinmusire, among many others.
The Dublin Guitar Quartet’s work has garnered the attention of some of the world’s leading composers. With the help of eight and eleven-string guitars, the quartet has created an original catalogue of arrangements by composers such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Arvo Part, and Gyorgy Ligeti. Recent activity includes a release on Philip Glass’s Orange Mountain Music label and a new commission by New York’s Michael Gordon. The quartet performed alongside the Grammy-award winning LA Guitar Quartet, Conspirare, and the Texas Guitar Quartet in a premiere of How Little You Are by Nico Muhly in Austin, Texas in April 2015. The quartet is also included on a recent recording performing Arvo Part’s Summa.
Interlochen alum Martha Kluver (IAA 97-99, IAC 97) has sung with Roomful of Teeth since it was founded and has been praised by the New York Times for her “exquisitely sultry, dusky” and “soulful” vocals. As part of her visit to Interlochen, she will sing with Arts Academy students at a school community meeting.
