Roomful of Teeth is a unique vocal group from Massachusetts. The eight-piece ensemble won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance thanks to their unparalleled choral repertoire incorporating Appalachian yodeling and Tuvan throat singing.
The group will play at New York's Park Avenue Armory this March and April as part of the venue's recital series. The series brings acclaimed performances of both classics and contemporary works to the historic Upper East Side venue.
Roomful of Teeth nabbed the aforementioned Grammy with their 2012 self-titled, debut album. The win thrust them into the mainstream music spotlight, displaying their particular vocal prowess to the uninitiated millions -- the populous now further cultured thanks to the group's shining, studied display of eclectic vocal capability.
The octet's sophomore album, Render, was released in April 2015. In an interview with NPR, Roomful of Teeth singer and Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Caroline Shaw spoke of the album's title in relation to the group's progress as a parallel of imaging and video production techniques:
"For me, it's the idea of seeing distinct particles slowly come together and create an image - that's what video rendering is," she says. "And I think our next journey through this second album, and beyond, is to see how our distinct voices come together and keep creating new music."
Founding member and group artistic director Brad Wells told Colorado Public Radio that he prefers to think of the ensemble as a band, not a choir, identifying the group's closeness as a result of musical camaraderie rather than institutional bureaucracy:
"There's a formality around choirs, the same as there's a formality around orchestras. And there's an informality (around bands). You're in somebody's living room or you're in somebody's garage, making the music you love -- as opposed to, you're doing it for a service or you're doing it for a concert series. ... I think that's part of the spirit that we really like in the group."
Roomful of Teeth plays the Armory on Thursday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. and Friday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are available from the Armory website.
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