Ansley Tillman, Arts and Entertainment Editor
Ethereal voices filled Guerry Auditorium as the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth presented Sewanee with music that stunned the entire audience. With a blend of contemporary styles, classical structures and cultural techniques, this particular group is showing the music world at large how boundaries can be pushed, blended and broken with stunning genius. The singers brought enthusiasm and personability on stage with them that made the whole experience feel extremely unique.
Roomful of Teeth was founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, who sought to make unique sounds with singers from all kinds of backgrounds. The group went on to receive a Grammy for their debut album Roomful of Teeth in 2014 and one for the album “Rough Magic” in 2024. They have worked with many composers including Caleb Burhans, Merrill Garbus, William Brittelle, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Elena Rue, Missy Mazzoli and many more. The members also have composed works for the whole group, such as Caroline Shaw who won a Pulitzer Prize for her composition “Partia for 8 Voices.”
One unique quality of the performance itself was how Roomful cultivated a personal and welcoming atmosphere to their audience. Usually in the world of music, ensembles will have an air of regality that creates an extremely formal setting and alienates less experienced listeners from appreciating the experience of the music to the fullest. However, this was definitely not the case for Roomful. Ensemble member Steven Bradshaw said, “There’s a sense that things can get very stilted and very regal and formal, and I feel like we’ve always pushed against that, and I feel like people respond to that.”
From the moment they entered the stage, they dressed in colorful attire instead of the usual concert black. They established a connection with the audience that drew in listeners to fully experience their music. Bradshaw said, “I think we’ve always been interested in sort of stripping away the regality of it. We don’t all wear concert black and don’t file in in concert order. We more or less act like a band. We string tunes together from our albums and our career and we talk to the audience…It is interesting the juxtaposition between how much people really cling tenaciously to that formality versus the response of audiences when you do just let go.”
Along with their more casual approach to their concert setting, their music also has a distinctive multicultural style that elevates them among other a cappella groups. Having been trained in styles as diverse as yodeling, Inuit throat singing, Sadinian cantu a tenore, Hindustani music and Korean p’ansori, they explore ways to subvert the audience’s expectations of what the human voice can do while paying respect to these cultures. Using sounds that can be anything from chirping noises to guttural breath work adds a whole new layer of texture to their work.
Their music is fluid and flexible, often changing with time and performance. Bradshaw said that “there is much more flexibility about individual choices than you might find in a lot of vocal chamber groups. Cameron, who is the artistic director, he’s just always encouraging us that we are interested in what speaks, not necessarily what is on the page at all times. A lot of times in vocal music, it feels very fragile, and I feel like Roomful doesn’t feel as fragile… Because perfection is not the goal. The goal is what speaks in the room.”
From their Grammy winning album “Rough Magic”, Roomful of Teeth played two pieces: section 4 of “Bits Torn From Words” and Caroline Shaw’s “The Isle”. “Bits Torn From Words” is a piece that explores generalized anxiety disorder, displayed through wavering itches, surrendered exclamations and quivering breaths. The title itself stems from Korean American conceptual artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. The fourth movement in particular, titled “GaNaDaRaMaBaSa AJaChaKaTaPaHa” is built from the Korean alphabet’s 14 consonants.
“The Isle” is a multi-movement piece inspired by Shakespere’s play “The Tempest.” It consists of three monologues from three different characters. The first is Ariel’s monologue. Ariel is a mysterious spirit on the island where the play is set. The song has an ethereal tone to it, with whispers and an airy quality that mimic the spirits on the island.
The second is Caliban’s, a monstrous creature who is forced to serve the great wizard Prospero. His song is painfully melancholic, with strange little sounds added to reference his description of the island as “full of noises.” The final monologue belongs to Prospero: once a great Duke he was trapped on an island by his power-seeking brother. Prospero learned the island’s magic to protect his daughter who is on the island with him.
This section of the song is grander and climactic, occasionally breaking off into spoken word. Between the monologues are murmuring intros and outros that include all of the major and minor triads of the Western 12 note system of music. This essentially means that every note on a scale is played with its relative chord.
When at the performance, there was a palpable connection between the singers. They weren’t simply singing; they were presenting the connection found in the creative process with the audience. Even during the creation of their music, they enjoy establishing a relationship with the artists they work with and those who come in contact with their music. Bradshaw said, “We are very lucky to do music that we actually care about and have a connection to because we work with all these composers. These composers are our friends and very often they come back…we tend to make friends and have extended relationships.”
The group itself has a wide variety of artists. Bradshaw remarked, “We have members now in the group that dont have a choral pedigree at all. They come from totally different backgrounds. They are composers and instrumentalists where they did not necessarily go to conservatory to be Baroque soloists and elite soloists.” He said that with any new project, they want to leave with new friends.
The goal of this group from formation to now has been to push the boundaries of what music can be. They “want a show like ours to augment their perception of what’s possible within chamber music, within music for voices, within performers reading scores on stage.” Pioneers in music and art, Roomful of Teeth is revamping what it means to create and perform music.
“I want to augment what people think is possible,” Bradshaw said.