The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music, Walker Art Center and Schubert Club Mix present Roomful of Teeth at Aria, April 5
Thursday, March 23, 2017 at 6:40AM
Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth and sonic experimentalist Nick Zammuto (The Books) assemble a custom-built evening of sound explorations in a world premiere collaboration commissioned by the SPCO’s Liquid Music, Walker Art Center and Schubert Club Mix. In addition, the vocal ensemble performs the Minnesota premiere of Partita for 8 Voices, group member Caroline Shaw’s mesmerizing Pulitzer Prize-winning composition. The event takes place Wednesday, April 5, at Aria, 105 N First Street.
“We’re thrilled to join the line-up of world class, groundbreaking artists this year and are especially honored to be co-presented by Liquid Music, The Schubert Club and Walker Art Center, three of our favorite arts organizations in the country,” says Roomful of Teeth member Brad Wells. “Our collaboration with Nick Zammuto promises to elicit sounds and grooves that could only manifest in such a thoughtfully supported and artfully curated production. Nick’s brilliance – creating intricate, tech-based grooves that seem to levitate – will be on full display in this new work. The piece features magical moments in which individual singers from Teeth are spotlighted as well as vast flowing musical tapestries for the whole group.”
Nick Zammuto explains that Self one, his new piece for Roomful of Teeth, “cycles between solos sung through a pitch/delay unit with an analog synth accompaniment, and highly rhythmic ensemble sections.” Nick elaborates that the the piece is about “finding our identities within a digital house of mirrors.”
Wednesday, April 5, at Aria, 105 N First Street
“Roomful of Teeth’s Twin Cities’ debut is long overdue,” says Liquid Music curator Kate Nordstrum. “To make up for lost time, The Schubert Club, Walker and Liquid Music are banding together to commission a new work for the ensemble and jointly present the collaboration. We’re all great admirers of Nick Zammuto’s musical mind and so when we heard that Roomful of Teeth were hoping to work with him, we jumped on the opportunity. Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices will also be featured on the program, a special and electric piece that will sound and feel amazing at Aria.”
Roomful of Teeth is a GRAMMY-winning vocal project dedicated to mining the expressive potential of the human voice. Through study with masters from singing traditions the world over, the eight-voice ensemble continually expands its vocabulary of singing techniques and, through an ongoing commissioning process, forges a new repertoire without borders.
Nick Zammuto was one-half of the beloved experimental collage-pop duo, the Books. He lives and works in the Green Mountains of Southern Vermont, where he writes, records, mixes and masters his records in a small tractor garage converted into a studio. Just yards away from his studio is his house, which he designed and built himself, and large gardens where he and his wife manage to grow most of their own food for their three sons. This self-sufficiency and constant drawing of inspiration from his surroundings is synonymous with his musical vision; a statement about returning to a life in balance, while at the same time pushing the capacity of cutting-edge music technology to extend human emotion, rather than suppress it. Making music that sounds and feels like no one else is nothing new for Zammuto, but making music that doesn't even sound like his own past is a whole other impressive feat in itself.
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series develops innovative new projects with iconoclastic artists in unique presentation formats. Liquid Music performances invite adventurous audiences to discover the new and the fascinating within the flourishing landscape of contemporary chamber music.
Schubert Club Mix is an innovative series presented by the Schubert Club that takes the formality out of classical music. Audiences are treated to remarkable and intimate performances with relevant artists who are influencing the musical landscape of today.
The Walker Art Center is catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences, the Walker Art Center examines the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities. Established in 1927 as the Walker Art Gallery, in 1940 it adopted a new name and focused on modern and contemporary art exhibitions as well as screenings, performances and public programs. Today the Walker is one of the top-five most visited modern and contemporary art centers in the U.S. Multidisciplinary in focus, it is equally committed to advancing artistic innovation and interdisciplinary scholarship as it is with increasing access to lifelong learning in the arts. Led by Senior Curator Philip Bither since 1997, the Walker’s Performing Arts program under his tenure has been defined by its commitment to the increasingly blurred lines between artistic disciplines, including contemporary dance, new music-theatre, performance art, experimental theatre, avant-jazz, contemporary classical music, new global sounds and alternative rock and pop.
