Roomful of Teeth’s concert is both beautiful and bizarre

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Few ensembles have had as much success as the vocal octet Roomful of Teeth. Even fewer have done so with its verve and speed. The group, founded in 2009 by artistic director Brad Wells, already has won a Grammy. A composition featured on that recording, Caroline Shaw’s “Partita for 8 Voices,” received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Oh, and Ms. Shaw is a founding member of the ensemble.

So Roomful of Teeth’s local debut Tuesday night at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater was a coup both for the audience and for Chamber Music Pittsburgh, which presented the concert on its casual, multigenre Just Summer series.

Launched in 2013, Just Summer also has quickly become a mainstay on the local classical music scene, and it is one of the highlights of Chamber Music Pittsburgh’s offerings. Roomful of Teeth’s memorable performance was proof of that: A vocal ensemble specializing in contemporary music and vocal techniques from around the world is not regular fare on Chamber Music Pittsburgh’s main series at Carnegie Music Hall, much lessany other series in Pittsburgh.

Standing in a semicircle and performing without a conductor, the group, composed of four men and four women, opened with the 26-minute “Partita.” The four-movement work involves a hodgepodge of nonverbal sounds and other texts, such as instructions from a Sol LeWitt painting and square dance calls; meanwhile, the eclectic score asks the singers to use stretched pitches, Tuvan vocal techniques, percussive inhalations (and exhalations), and other skills that push the boundaries of what we think the voice can do. Those textures represent the central impulse in this work: In the fourth movement, Passacaglia, chattering among the singers evoked the static of a radio dial between clear stations.

That focus on the character of the sound gave the impression of hearing an animated conversation in a foreign language: strange yet full of meaning, beautiful and often bizarre. The terrific singers, who used microphones, imbued these unusual sounds and words with the fluency of a tightknit string quartet. If the entrances were not as crisp as the group’s recording — the singers had to start over shortly into the performance because one member apparently wasn’t ready — the impact of hearing this work live made up the difference.

The program also included Ms. Shaw’s “The Isle,” which is based on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” While this work had a more traditional inspiration, it also produced unusual textures; one moment suggested water dripping in a cave, while another section sounded like Morse code.

In Caleb Burhans’ “Beneath,” the ensemble was like a percussion ensemble for voice, offering a wash of sound in subtly shifting timbres. Each voice had individual character without sacrificing the whole blend. Rinde Eckert’s “Cesca’s View,” a brief work for the female singers, was centered on the impressive, cracking yodels of soprano Estelí Gomez, although the work felt a bit cartoonish. Alev Lenz’s “Fall Into Me” was an overly brooding encore.

In the past, I’ve encouraged Chamber Music Pittsburgh to bring the Just Summer sensibility to its concert series at Carnegie Music Hall. Four of next season’s six programs involve artists who have appeared on Chamber Music Pittsburgh concerts since 2015 (including trumpeter Sean Jones, who played on Just Summer), and the same number of shows feature a string quartet. Just Summer’s commitment to fresh concepts, inventive programs, various ensemble types and new artists would be a good model for Chamber Music Pittsburgh’s school year series, too. Fortunately, in the Just Summer series, Chamber Music Pittsburgh has set a strong example for itself.