SF Opera Lab Presents Grammy-Winning Vocal Ensemble ROOMFUL OF TEETH and CHAMBERWORKS

Season Two of SF Opera Lab comes to a close this month with two concerts exploring a rich tapestry of sound worlds within the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater at San Francisco Opera's Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera. The "remarkable vocal octet" (New York Times) Roomful of Teeth makes their San Francisco debut on April 23 in a sold-out "Shaw & Shakespeare" program co-presented with San Francisco Performances' PIVOT series. On April 27, musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra curate and perform an evening of ChamberWORKS featuring music by William Presser, John Mackey, Anton Arensky and Luigi Boccherini.

Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, Roomful of Teeth is dedicated to mining the expressive potential of the human voice. Through study with masters from singing traditions the world over, the eight-voice a cappella ensemble continually expands its vocabulary of singing techniques and, through an ongoing commissioning process, forges a new repertoire without borders. The Grammy-winning group's imaginative vocalizing has captured the attention of curious listeners as well as critics from all corners of the music world, attracting standing-room-only crowds at recent appearances.

The "Shaw & Shakespeare" program presents the Bay Area premiere of ensemble member Caroline Shaw's Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices, a four-movement a cappella work created for Roomful of Teeth that embraces speech, whispers, sighs, murmurs, wordless melodies and novel vocal effects. Of the premiere of Shaw's Partita, New York magazine said: "She has discovered a lode of the rarest commodity in contemporary music: joy." A New York-based musician and composer, Shaw became the youngest ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Partita for 8 Voices(the only Pulitzer awarded to an a cappella vocal work). The program also features West Coast premieres of new works set to Shakespeare texts: The Isle, a new vocal piece by Caroline Shaw set to text from The Tempest; British composer Anna Clyne's Pocket Book VIII (setting of Sonnet 8) and Pocket Book LXV (setting of Sonnet 65); and composer/ensemble member Eric Dudley's QuietUs (setting of Sonnet 60 and text from Hamlet), which highlights heavy metal screamo technique and hard-rock belting.

Members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra-violinists Heidi Wilcox and Maki Ishii Sowash, violist Natalia Vershilova, cellists Victoria Ehrlich and Ruth Lane, and tuba player Zachariah Spellman-curate and perform in this intimate and eclectic evening of music. The program, which features stage direction by first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Aria Umezawa and projection designs by Kate Duhamel, includes William Presser's Seven Duets for Violin and Tuba; John Mackey's Wrong Mountain Stomp; Anton Arensky's String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 35; and Luigi Boccherini's Quintet No. 4 in D Major ("Fandango"), G. 448.

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