Texas Performing Arts presents a vocal-infused double bill featuring Grammy Award®-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth and an encore performance of Mozart Requiem Undead by Panoramic Voices (formerly the Texas Choral Consort and Orchestra) along with Austin-based vocal ensemble Convergence. The evening will also feature the world premiere of Caleb Burhans' Tired Tropes for Battered Souls, which has been commissioned by Texas Performing Arts and KMFA-FM.
Grammy Award®-winning vocal project 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 ensemble continually expands its vocabulary of singing techniques and, through an ongoing commissioning process, forges a new repertoire without borders.
Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, the group gathers annually at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts, where they've studied Tuvan throat singing, yodeling, belting, Inuit throat singing, Korean P'ansori, Georgian singing, Sardinian cantu a tenore, Hindustani music, and Persian classical singing with some of the world's top performers and teachers. Commissioned composers include Rinde Eckert, Judd Greenstein, Caleb Burhans, Merrill Garbus (of tUnE-yArDs), William Brittelle, Anna Clyne, Fred Hersch, Wally Gunn, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Missy Mazzoli, Michael Harrison, Sam Amidon, and TEd Hearne.In 2014, Texas Performing Arts and partners Golden Hornet Project and Fusebox Festival presented Mozart Requiem Undead to open the Fusebox Festival on the French Legation Museum lawn. The event was a huge success with a capacity crowd in attendance. Now, we're moving the performance indoors to Bass Concert Hall.
Less than one year before Mozart died, he received a commission for a death mass from a mysterious stranger who intended to pass it off as his own composition. Mozart diEd Penniless before he completed his final composition. To pay for his funeral, his widow had one of his students complete the work as we know it today: Mozart's Requiem Mass.
The Mozart Requiem Undead project takes the composition back to square one. Ten unique composers ranging from Pulitzer Prize Winning composer Caroline Shaw to the drummer from Wilco were each commissioned to rework a movement of Mozart's Requiem Mass. The only catch was that the composers had to keep what Mozart wrote down before he died. Anything else goes. Mozart Requiem Undead will be performed by over 200 artists and will feature a full orchestra, rhythm section, electronics, and Panoramic Voices award-winning chorus and soloists, all led by Panoramic Voices Artistic Director Brent Baldwin.
Marking its 20th season this year, Panoramic Voices brings an eclectic musical experience to the Austin community and beyond. Led by Artistic Director and Conductor Brent Baldwin, Panoramic Voices' resourceful mix of classical and contemporary music is presented in compelling, heartfelt, and engaging performances. As a reflection of its model of enduring innovation and evolution, the organization's name was changed from Texas Choral Consort to Panoramic Voices in July 2016 to reflect its expanded artistic vision.
As Texas Choral Consort, the ensemble received the Best Choral Performance award from the Austin Critics' Table for the first performance of Mozart Requiem Undead in April 2014. More Austin Critics' Table nominations arrived in 2015 and 2016 - listing 2015's Haydn's Creation and Indie Orchestra Night concerts, as well as 2016's Fusebox Festival collaboration "Bat/Man."
In addition to $10 tickets for primary, secondary, and college students, Texas Performing Arts is now offering a limited number of $12 tickets to active and retired military personnel for all 2016-2017 Essential Series performances (excludes Broadway and special engagements). A military ID is required. For a schedule of upcoming 2016-2017 season performances, please visit www.TexasPerformingArts.org.
For more information on this performance, please visit: http://texasperformingarts.org/season/roomful-of-teeth-mozart-requiem-undead-bass-concert-hall-2016.
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