Roomful of Teeth. Provided photo.

EnsembleNEWSRQ is kicking off its 11th season with a bang. Well, not literally a “bang," but an explosive performance nonetheless. Sarasota’s versatile chamber music collective opens its 11th season October 5 with a collaboration with the Grammy-winning vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth. Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells and Caroline Shaw, Roomful of Teeth quickly made waves in the music industry—the band’s self-titled debut album was nominated for three Grammys in 2014 and 2023’s Rough Magic, was nominated in two categories.

“They are incredible,” says violinist Samantha Bennett, who co-founded ensembleNEWSRQ with percussionist George Nickson in 2015. “They are a group of eight singers doing contemporary vocal music, they do a lot of commissions and new music and we’ve admired them for years. They’re very well known in our contemporary music circle and it’s awesome that we’re bringing them down here and collaborating in this way.”

Musicians from ensembleNEWSRQ and Roomful of Teeth will present five works: Bits Torn from Words by Peter Shin, On Stochastic Wave Behavior by Leilehua Lanzilotti, The Isle by Caroline Shaw, The Ascendant by Wally Gun and This Might Be a Form of Dreaming by Caroline Shaw. Bits Torn from Words, On Stochastic Wave Behavior and The Isle will all be acapella performances by Roomful of Teeth. On Gun’s The Ascendant, a six-song set lasting 22 minutes, Nickson will join Roomful of Teeth on the drum kit. This Might Also Be a Form of Dreaming will see Bennett, Natalie Helm (Principal Cellist of the Sarasota Orchestra), Asher Carlson, Nickson and Sam Nelson of ensembleNEWSRQ join forces with Roomful of Teeth.

For Bennett, who serves as ensembleNEWSRQ’s artistic director along with Nickson, working with composers such as Caroline Shaw represents an important part of her organization’s mission. EnsembleNEWSRQ wants to be the organization that propels the next generation of contemporary, classical music forward, by commissioning new works and collaborating with artists that continue to push the envelope of their craft. “We need to be the people advocating for composers and artists in this time,” says Bennett.

Roomful of Teeth, October 5, 7:30pm, First Congregational Church, 1031 S Euclid Ave, Sarasota.

Roomful of Teeth. Provided photo.

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