Two pianos, two guitars, “A daring triumph,” according to Pitchfork, Dream House Quartet will perform on May 5 at Yale Schwarzman Center, produced in partnership with ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann. In its first-ever world tour, this all-star ensemble, featuring Grammy® Award-winning musician, composer, arranger, guitarist and Yale graduate and Yale Schwarzman Center Artist-in-Residence Bryce Dessner, sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, and guitarist David Chalmin, will bring singular interpretations of minimalist pioneers and contemporary composers to New Haven. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required
Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms. Legendary dueling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque alongside pioneering composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner (The National, C’mon C’mon, Bardo) and David Chalmin (Innocence, La Terre Invisible) perform unparalleled works by visionary composers from the past half-century.
The quartet’s premiere North American tour brings newly commissioned works from Thom Yorke (Radiohead) featuring his first compositions for classical music and concert halls for two pianos, electronics and modular synthesizer, world premieres from Bryce Dessner, David Chalmin, and works from Philip Glass, Anna Thorvaldsdottir (U.S. premiere), Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and more. Yale Schwarzman Center commissioned Thorvaldsdottir’s work as a part of Dessner’s residency.
"I can't think of a more fitting close to our inaugural season at Yale Schwarzman Center” said Executive Director Rachel Fine. “Major new works, premiered by Dream House Quartet, which will take full advantage of the unparalleled acoustics and soaring architecture of Commons. This program will underscore beautifully the distinctive assets the Schwarzman Center offers its artists and audiences."
Yale Schwarzman Center Associate Artistic Director Jennifer Harrison Newman said, “As our inaugural artist-in-residence in music, Bryce Dessner displays not only his distinguished multi-hyphenate career as a musician, performer, and composer, but also as someone who centers collaboration across genres and builds community through boundary pushing new works. Dream House Quartet is a thrilling example of his work.”
As an increasingly high-profile presence in the world of film score composition, including Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Oscar®-winning The Revenant, Dessner is one of the most sought-after composers of his generation, working with artists across a variety of genres. He also has written orchestral, chamber, and vocal compositions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, BAM Next Wave Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Festival, eighth blackbird, Roomful of Teeth, Sō Percussion and New York City Ballet, among others. For more information, visit brycedessner.com
Renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy, sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque have played with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Filarmonia della Scala, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam , Santa Cecilia and Vienna Philharmonic. For their own label KML recordings, they have released a CD box Sisters (2014). Previous releases include a Gershwin-Bernstein album, and their project Minimalist Dream House (50 years of minimalist music). The DVD “The Labeque Way, a letter to Katia and Marielle by Alessandro Baricco” produced by El Deseo (Pedro and Augustin Almodovar) and filmed by Felix Cabez is released by EuroArts. Their biography, “Une vie a quatre mains” by Renaud Machart is published by Buchet-Chastel. For more information, visit labeque.com
With collaborations ranging from classical music to avant-garde, Chalmin has worked with Rufus Wainwright, Madonna, Matt Elliot, Kalakan, Shannon Wright, The National (Bryce and Aaronn Dessner), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Moondog (Katia Labèque), among others. His work as a composer has been performed in places such as Los Angeles Philharmony-Disney Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Salle Pleyel, WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln, London's King's Place and Toronto Koerner's Hall. Chalmin runs two recording studios, Studio K Paris and Studio LFO in the Basque Region and was recently the composer-in-residence at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes from 2018 to 2020. For more information, visit davidchalmin.com
Dream House Quartet released a new EP on Deutsche Grammophon on April 14, 2023, to coincide with the tour, and a full album release is scheduled for the fall of 2023.