Roomful of Teeth Premieres Works in Progress

​From January 19 to 25, The Church in Sag Harbor is welcoming two-time Grammy winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth for a weeklong residency as they workshop three new works.

Roomful of Teeth is made up of some of today’s most visionary composers, including Christopher Cerrone, Mingjia Chen and Eliza Bragg, and on Thursday, January 23, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the group will premiere its new work in a performance at The Church. A sold-out show follows in New York City on Saturday, January 25, at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, along with a world premiere new work by Gabriela Ortiz.

The Roomful of Teeth ensemble includes Estelí Gomez, Mingjia Chen, Eliza Bagg, Martha Cluver, Virginia Kelsey, Jodie Landau, Steven Bradshaw, Thann Scoggin and Cameron Beauchamp. The Church residency and performance will continue the group’s exploration of creating and performing meaningful and adventurous music using a continuously expanding vocabulary of singing techniques.

Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, Roomful of Teeth was incubated at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts, where members studied with some of the world’s most extraordinary singers and teachers. Through experimentation, exploration, and plenty of failures, the group learned that the boundaries of the human voice are never what they seem, that rules can be bent, even broken, and perhaps they should be.

Through their unique collaborative process, Roomful of Teeth has worked with many of today’s most compelling musical creators to build a significant and continuously growing repertoire. They have collaborated with a wide range of artists and ensembles spanning genres and art forms. By engaging collaboratively with artists, thinkers and community leaders around the world, the group seeks to uplift and amplify voices old and new while creating and performing meaningful and adventurous music using a continuously expanding vocabulary of singing techniques.

Tickets for Roomful of Teeth are $30 ($25 members and students) at thechurchsagharbor.com. The Church is at 48 Madison Street in Sag Harbor.