Roomful of Teeth Brad Wells, Director

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Tuesday Evening, October 21, 2014, at 7:30

Sonic Tapestry Roomful of Teeth Brad Wells, Director

Estelí Gomez, Martha Cluver, Caroline Shaw, Virginia Warnken, Eric Dudley, Jeff Gavett, Dashon Burton, Cameron Beauchamp

RINDE ECKERT I have stopped the clocks (2009) (New York premiere)

SAM AMIDON Hiram Stamper (2014) (New York premiere) Lincoln Center commission

BRAD WELLS Render (2013)

CAROLINE SHAW Partita for 8 Voices (2009–11)

This program is approximately one hour long and will be performed without intermission.

Please join the artists in the Samuels Studio for a White Light Lounge immediately following the performance.

The White Light Festival is sponsored by Time Warner Inc. This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.

Clark Studio Theater Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.

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Additional support is provided by The Fan Fox and Upcoming White Light Festival Events: Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc. Wednesday–Friday Evenings, October 22–24, Endowment support is provided by the American at 7:30 in James Memorial Chapel, Union Express Cultural Preservation Fund. Theological Seminary How Like an Angel (U.S. premiere) MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center. A unique melding of acrobatics by the troupe Circa and sacred song performed by I Fagiolini Movado is an Official Sponsor of Lincoln Center. Post-performance discussion with Robert Hollingworth, Yaron Lifschitz, and Ara Guzelimian United Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln on Thursday, October 23 Center. Friday–Sunday, October 24–26, WABC-TV is the Official Broadcast Partner of in the Walter Reade Theater Lincoln Center. White Light on Film: The Decalogue Krzysztof Kie slowski , Director William Hill Estate Winery is the Official Wine of The complete ´cycle of 10 films is screened over a Lincoln Center. weekend. Introduced by Annette Insdorf on October 24 at 7:30 Artist Catering is provided by Zabar’s and Presented in association with the Film Society of Zabars.com. Lincoln Center

Saturday, October 25, from 3:45 to 5:15 in the Walter Reade Theater White Light Conversation: The Evolution of Morality John Schaefer , Moderator With John Luther Adams, Randy Cohen, Alice W. Flaherty, and Elaine Pagels

Thursday–Saturday, October 30–November 1, at 7:30 in Synod House, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine Curlew River (U.S. premiere production) Ian Bostridge , Madwoman Netia Jones , Director and Designer BRITTEN : Curlew River A co-production between the Barbican Centre, London, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carolina Performing Arts, and Cal Performances Berkeley

For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit WhiteLightFestival.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about pro - gram cancellations or to request a White Light Festival brochure.

Visit WhiteLightFestival.org for more information relating to the Festival’s programs.

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We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. 10-21 Roomful_GP 10/8/14 1:28 PM Page 3

Program Summary by Paul Schiavo

Founded in 2009, Roomful of Teeth has already established itself as the outstanding new- music vocal ensemble in America. Unlike other choirs dedicated to the music of our time, the group has taken upon itself not just to perform new vocal repertory but to create it by working closely with composers. The ensemble’s interest in expanding the horizons of vocal music has prompted it to explore a wide range of singing techniques—many of them unorthodox—and to collaborate with musicians working with varied compositional approaches and in different non-classical traditions.

The compositions performed this evening give some idea of the diverse music this activ - ity has produced. The program includes works by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, an experimental multidisciplinary artist (Rinde Eckert), and a musician steeped in old-time American folk traditions (Sam Amidon). Three of the four pieces include verbal texts, though Brad Wells’s Render uses wordless singing throughout. Amidon’s Hiram Stamper borrows material from American vernacular music and Eckert’s I have stopped the clocks uses a text written for another work, while the pieces by Wells and Shaw are composed entirely of original material.

It is often observed that, in this new millennium, the old orthodoxies of musical compo - sition have given way to thoroughly eclectic styles and procedures. (Eckert’s piece, for instance, forgoes conventional music notation for written instructions.) This eclecticism can seem baffling, but it is also exhilarating. And it is very much in evidence in the work Roomful of Teeth performs this evening.

Please turn to page 74 for a feature article on Roomful of Teeth.

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Notes on the Program “reinforces the stated intention of the speaker, while the beauty of the voices and by Paul Schiavo choral density speak to the poem’s psycho - logical and philosophical implications.” I have stopped the clocks (2009) RINDE ECKERT Eckert’s work straddles and combines the Born September 20, 1951, in Mankato, disciplines of music, theater, and litera - Minnesota ture. He has performed widely as an actor Currently resides in Nyack, New York and singer, and he has written plays and Approximate length: 4 minutes librettos (the latter including operas by Paul Dresher, Steven Mackey’s oratorio I have stopped the clocks in the room Dream House , and Slide , for which So the subjects won’t know what time it is. Mackey also composed the music) . His I’ve taken away their watches play Orpheus X was a finalist for the The room is windowless Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Great care has been taken to make the room comfortably austere Hiram Stamper (2014) They mustn’t feel trapped. SAM AMIDON They ought to feel at home Born June 3, 1981, in Brattleboro, Vermont Like a good motel—familiar but without Currently resides in London personality. Approximate length: 10 minutes These lines, a fragment from Slide , a musi - cal-dramatic piece about a psychology Collaboration with artists working in experiment and the man running it, provide diverse musical traditions has been an both text and poetic character for the essential activity for Roomful of Teeth opening piece. Using this portion of his since its inception. Among the most recent libretto for Slide , Rinde Eckert wrote I have results of the ensemble’s co-creative stopped the clocks while working with endeavors is Sam Amidon’s Hiram Roomful of Teeth in 2009, the first year of Stamper . An accomplished singer and fid - the ensemble’s existence. “We had dle, guitar, and banjo player, Amidon is already explored extended vocal tech - deeply conversant with some of the oldest niques in a few other pieces I wrote for strains of American folk music. But this them that summer,” Eckert recalls, “so I Vermont native’s interests range beyond made this as a kind of ballast.” the Appalachian tunes that form his musi - cal roots. He is fascinated by the “shape- While the vocal production used in I have note” melodies of The Sacred Harp hym - stopped the clocks may be relatively con - nal, melodies often described as white ventional, the work’s compositional form spirituals. And he has explored unusual and processes are not. The text is delivered fringes of jazz, collaborating with the inno - by several voices that begin reciting it at vative guitarist Bill Frisell and examining staggered intervals and at slightly different the work of some of the music’s other orig - speeds. Moreover, the performers are free inal practitioners. to accelerate or slow their deliveries as they choose. Meanwhile, the other group That these varied interests have informed members sing improvisations on sug - Amidon’s own composing is evident in gested motifs, restricting themselves to a Hiram Stamper , which Amidon wrote this modal scale. The result serves to surround past spring. The work quotes a poem-song the recited text in a wash of melody. “The by Arthur Doyle (1944–2014), a free-jazz austerity of the whole,” Eckert observes, saxophonist and songwriter of decidedly 10-21 Roomful_GP 10/8/14 1:28 PM Page 5

eccentric inclinations, as well as a 200- story by the neuroscientist and writer David year-old shape-note hymn. Doyle’s witty Eagleman. Part of his acclaimed collection contribution is intoned by a single voice at of poetic meditations Sum , this story spec - the outset. The shape-note hymn begins ulates about the limits of human conscious - shortly thereafter. The superimposition of ness, the possibility that the atoms that these utterly dissimilar materials produces form us acquire different experiences as surprising, only-in-America results during they are absorbed into new organic forms the first several minutes of the work. The after our deaths, and the additional possibil - second half of the piece is given over ity of a kind of reincarnation as they follow entirely to the shape-note hymn. an urge to reunite, “once every few millen - nia,” into human form. The story suggests Hiram Stamper , Amidon explains, is “the a process of slow and continuous transfor - name of an obscure and eccentric Kentucky mation over vast stretches of time, with a fiddler who died about 30 years ago.” Apart strong sense of longing for both new fron - from borrowing his name as its title, how - tiers and old intimacies. ever, the composition has no relationship to Stamper or his music. Commissioned by Both these qualities—continual evolution Lincoln Center for Roomful of Teeth, Hiram and deep yearning—find expression in Stamper receives its first New York perfor - Render . To a wordless text, the eight mance this evening. voices for which the piece is scored sing two complimentary strands of music. One Hiram Stamper is a succession of slow-moving chords, Text : Isaac Watts their perfectly steady rhythm producing a gentle pulsation. Against this, other voices Thence He arose, ascended high, sing phrases of melody and counter-melody And showed our feet the way; whose pitch and rhythmic contours are more Up to the Lord our souls shall fly, varied yet still quite restrained. The combina - At the great rising day. tion of these two elements produces music that is both serene and poignant. Render (2013) BRAD WELLS Partita for 8 Voices (2009–11) Born September 28, 1961, in Bogalusa, CAROLINE SHAW Louisiana Born August 1, 1982, in Greenville, Currently resides in Williamstown, North Carolina Massachusetts Currently resides in New York City

Approximate length: 9 minutes Approximate length: 25 minutes

As founding director of Roomful of Teeth, Roomful of Teeth’s mission to create new Brad Wells’s vision of fostering original vocal music has produced notable results. and eclectic vocal-ensemble music has None has been more highly lauded than shaped the group’s work and wide-rang - Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices. ing repertory. His own music is part of Composed between 2009 and 2011, this that body of work and reflects Wells’s in - piece received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize clusive musical proclivities. for Music.

Wells composed Render in northern Shaw is a versatile musician. A member Vermont during the late summer of 2013. of Roomful of Teeth since its inception, The piece was inspired by Search , a short she is also an accomplished violinist. Her

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compositions have been performed by S o¯ The piece uses spoken text, wordless Percussion, the American Contemporary singing, humming, and breathy whispers, Music Ensemble, the Brentano String and intimates a wide range of musical Quartet, and other ensembles. She is idioms, from medieval and renaissance presently pursuing doctoral studies in polyphony to Protestant hymnody and composition at Princeton University. Balkan folk singing. Remarkably, Shaw transforms and combines these elements The term partita indicates a dance suite, into an integral original whole. The com - and Shaw has patterned each of the four poser describes Partita as “a simple piece, movements of her partita on Baroque- born of a love of surface and structure, of period dances. The work, she notes, was the human voice, of dancing and tired liga - inspired by Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing 305 . ments, of music, and of our basic desire to This piece consists of verbal instructions draw a line from one point to another.” She for plotting a point, overlaid with a few further notes that the work was written intersecting lines. Its references to geo - with and for “my dear friends in Roomful metrical shapes and procedures find of Teeth.” reflection in the text for the first move - ment of Partita and, more obliquely, in the —Copyright © 2014 by Paul Schiavo work’s musical processes.

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Meet the Artists Contemporary Composition for Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices. The album sub - sequently received a Grammy for Best Cham - ber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. N O T R U B

N O H N S A A M D

T Brad Wells I H W

A Conductor and composer Brad Wells directs L O H C

I the choral program, oversees and teaches N studio voice, and leads courses in conduct - Roomful of Teeth ing, arranging, and voice science and style at Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, Roomful of Williams College in Williamstown, Teeth is a vocal project dedicated to mining Massachusetts. He is also the founder and the expressive potential of the human director of Roomful of Teeth. voice. Through study with masters from non-classical traditions the world over, the Mr. Wells has held conducting positions at eight-voice ensemble continually expands Yale University, Trinity College, University of its vocabulary of singing techniques and, California at Berkeley, and California State through an ongoing commissioning project, University, Chico, and has directed choirs of invites today’s brightest composers to cre - all ages. His ensembles have performed ate a repertoire without borders. throughout North and South America, South Africa, and Europe. In 2007 Mr. Wells com - The ensemble gathers annually at Massa - missioned and led the Williams Concert chusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Choir in the world premiere in Palestrina, (Mass MoCA), where they’ve studied Tuvan Italy, of Judd Greenstein’s Lamenting , a throat singing, yodeling, belting, Inuit throat work based on Renaissance composer singing, Korean p’ansori, Persian singing, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s settings of Hindustani music, Georgian singing, and Hebrew letters from his Lamentations. In Sardinian cantu a tenore styles with some of 2006 Mr. Wells assisted with the world pre - the world’s top performers and teachers of miere of Philip Miller’s Rewind: A Cantata the styles. Commissioned composers for Voice, Tape and Testimony in Cape Town, include Rinde Eckert, Judd Greenstein, South Africa. His ensembles have per - Caleb Burhans, Merrill Garbus (of tUnE- formed with the renowned Durban-based yArDs), William Brittelle, Sarah Kirkland vocal ensemble Siphithemba. Snider, and Missy Mazzoli. A champion of Estonian choral music, he The project’s debut album, Roomful of has led the U.S. premieres of works by Teeth , was released in 2012. Included on numerous Estonian composers, including many “Best of 2012” lists and topping the Raimo Kangro, Jüri-Ruut Kangur, and classical charts, the album was nominated Lembit Veevo. He has lectured and pub - in three categories for the 56th Annual lished articles on the physiology and Grammy Awards, including Best Engineered acoustics of non-classical vocal styles and Classical Record, Best Chamber Music/Small the role of singing in film. As a singer he Ensemble Performance, and Best Classical has performed and recorded with such

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ensembles as Paul Hillier’s Theatre of directors complemented by conversations Voices, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra with artists and scholars and post- (under Nicholas McGegan and Philip Brett) performance White Light Lounges. and the California Choral Company (under William Dehning). In 1998 he was the recip - Lincoln Center for the Performing ient of the Aidan Kavanagh Achievem ent Arts, Inc. Prize from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Mr. Wells received both a doctorate and a (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presen - master of musical arts degree from Yale ter of artistic programming, national leader University; a master of music degree from in arts and education and community rela - University of Texas at Austin; and a bachelor tions, and manager of the Lincoln Center of arts degree from Principia College. campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, White Light Festival tours, and educational activities annually, I could compare my music to white light, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festi - which contains all colors. Only a prism can vals, including American Songbook, Great divide the colors and make them appear; Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln this prism could be the spirit of the listener. Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night —Arvo Pärt . Celebrating its fifth anniver - Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the sary, the White Light Festival is Lincoln White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Center’s annual exploration of music Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center , and art’s power to reveal the many dimen - which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of sions of our interior lives. International in the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides scope, the multidisciplinary festival offers support and services for the Lincoln Center a broad spectrum of the world’s leading complex and the 11 resident organizations. instrumentalists, vocalists, ensembles, In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus choreographers, dance companies, and renovation, completed in October 2012.

Lincoln Center Programming Department Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming Jill Sternheimer, Acting Director, Public Programming Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming Mauricio Lomelin, Associate Producer, Contemporary Programming Julia Lin, Associate Producer Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor Nasrene Haj, House Seat Coordinator Utsuki Otsuka, Production Assistant Reshena Liao, House Program Intern