South Florida Classical Review

Roomful of Teeth performed at the Bass Museum in Miami Beach Friday night, presented by IlluminArts. Photo: Tamara Benavente

The vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth is expanding the range and horizons of the human voice. Only singer-composer Meredith Monk comes close to this group in terms of adventurous experimentation with the vocal instrument. 

Eight amplified singers from the New York-based ensemble presented a stunning demonstration of their artistry Friday night at Miami Beach’s Bass Museum, the season-opening presentation of the IlluminArts concert series.

Two terrific large-scale creations by Caroline Shaw and inti figgis-vizueta bookended the 80-minute program. Three shorter scores between the major works brought their own visionary ideas to the musical table as well.

Caroline Shaw is one of the most consistently original and impressive composers on the contemporary concert scene. Eschewing a signature style, each Shaw work is different in terms of artistic patterns and ambition. The Isle is a setting of three speeches (by Ariel, Caliban and Prospero) from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Shakespeare’s play has long provided inspiration for composers, spawning operas by Thomas Adès and Lee Hoiby, a ballet by Paul Chihara and numerous musical theater adaptations. 

Shaw’s work is one of the most strikingly innovative. Initial spectral sounds, seemingly from another universe, lead to moments of quasi-repetitive minimalism. Despite the high range of Shaw’s writing, the eight voices were flawlessly coordinated and blended under singer-artistic director Cameron Beauchamp, who acted as the evening’s host.  A finely contoured lyrical pulse takes hold, and the ensemble sound was robust and sumptuous. Caliban’s monologue veers between arioso and a folk-inflected chorus. Pitch-perfect women’s voices ascended the final high lines of Prospero’s address. Shaw’s sense of timbral variety and harmonic flights consistently enchanted the ear.

Following Shaw’s impressive opus, On Stochastic Waves Behavior by Leilehua Lanzilotti proved diverting. With a text in the evolving language of ‘Olelo Hawai’I’  the ocean- centered composition features electronic processing of the voices. At one point, three female singers take up almost a modernist plainchant, with the final soft soundstream on the edge of inaudibility.

“Bits turn from words” from GaNaDaRaMaBaSu by Peter S. Shin is an intriguing novelty. A variety of pitches, sudden cries and breaths illuminate the consonants of the Korean alphabet. Most singing groups could not begin to perform Shin’s vocal obstacle course but the Roomful of Teeth octet  pulled it off with seeming ease.

Angélica Negrön has written a modern love song called “math, the one which is sweet.” Originally premiered by the group with the New York Philharmonic, it was sung to a recorded backup track with all sounds from a single voice. To the recorded beat, the voices spun a Latin rhythm to hypnotic effect. Negrön’s very different stylistic path illustrated the singers’ versatility.

The program concluded with the audio-visual tour de force of Earths to Come, a collaboration between composer inti figgis-vizueta and animator-filmmaker Rose Bond. Based on an eight-line poem by Emily Dickinson, Earths to Come is a visionary conception, mixing electronics, soaring exclamations and stunning visuals, all continually commanding the listener’s attention. Pictures of the solar galaxy are complemented by rising musical themes and processed clicking sounds from ensemble members.

A cinematic portrait of a seemingly haunted house brings eerie sounds appropriate to a horror movie soundtrack. An exultant chorale changes the setting to nature, trees and birds flying across the horizon. Against the electronic undercurrent, voices soar as the sky is filled with life. Negron’s music is more than a mere film background. Her skilled blending of live and recorded vibrations and her arching flow of ideas mark a distinctive talent that one wants to hear more from.

Negrön and Bonds were present to acknowledge the cheers and standing ovation from an audience that displayed open- minded perspective and clear enthusiasm throughout the concert.

IlluminArts presents “Built on Light,” the premiere of a new work by Shawn Crouch featuring soprano Michele Kennedy  7:30 p.m. January 9, 2027 at The Delano Hotel in Miami Beach. illuminarts.org

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