For immediate release — Dream House Quartet today announced their debut tour of the U.S. from April 23 to May 5, produced by ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann and pianos provided by Steinway & Sons. Made up of “electrifying pianists” (Pitchfork) Katia and Marielle Labèque, Grammy Award-winning guitarist, composer, and founding member of rock band The National Bryce Dessner, and composer, musician, and producer David Chalmin, Dream House Quartet will perform a program that includes the North American premiere of Thom Yorke’s first classical composition Don’t Fear the Light, world premieres by Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin, and works by Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and more that highlight the Quartet’s unique electric guitar and piano instrumentation.

The quartet will then tour across North America, with performances in Austin’s Bass Concert Hall (April 25), Los Angeles’s Royce Hall (April 30), Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall (April 27), Toronto’s Meridian Arts Centre (May 3), New Haven at Yale University's Schwarzman Center (May 5 - includes Anna Thorvaldsdottir US premiere), and more.

Dream House Quartet recently completed recording a new EP slated for release on the Deutsche Grammophon label. A digital EP will be released April 14 to coincide with the tour, and a full album release will follow in the Fall of 2023.

Tour Dates

Relevant Links

Press Photos

About the Labèques

Steinway Artists and sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque are renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age; they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide. They have played with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and more. They have also had the privilege of working with many composers throughout their career, including Louis Andriessen, Pierre Boulez, Philip Glass, György Ligeti, Nico Muhly and Olivier Messiaen. They’ve played in festivals and renowned venues worldwide including Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, BBC Proms, Tanglewood, and Salzburg. Recent highlights include their gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbuhne, where an audience of more than 33,000 attended (now available on DVD with EuroArts), and their Vienna Summer Night Concert in Schonbrunn, with a record audience of more than 100,000 attendees (available as a CD and DVD by SONY).

About Bryce Dessner

Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger, and co-principal songwriter. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score compositions, with credits including The Revenant, for which he was Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated, Fernando Mereilles’s The Two Popes, Mike Mill’s C’mon C’mon and the forthcoming Bardo by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Dessner collaborates with some of today’s most creative and respected artists, including Philip Glass, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Paul Simon, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sufjan Stevens, Fernando Mereilles, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Nico Muhly, and Steve Reich, who named Dessner “a major voice of his generation.” Dessner’s orchestrations can be heard on the latest albums of Paul Simon, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift. Also active as a curator, Dessner is regularly requested to program festivals and residencies around the world at venues such as at The Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and is currently the inaugural artist-in-residence in music at Yale University's Schwarzman Center. He is the co-founder and curator of the MusicNOW festivals in Cincinnati, HAVEN in Copenhagen, Sounds from a Safe Harbour and PEOPLE.

About David Chalmin

Over the past ten years, David Chalmin has not only assumed an increasing number of roles as a producer, arranger, and sound engineer alongside some of the most respected indie figures worldwide (including The National, Shannon Wright, Richard Reed Parry, Efterklang and many others) but also as a contemporary composer, founding member of Dream House Quartet with Bryce Dessner and Katia & Marielle Labèque and as a mastermind of dense, heady electronica with his album La terre invisible (2019). His current highlights include the Disney Hall premiere of his project Electric Fields in 2022, co-written with Bryce Dessner for Barbara Hannigan and the Labèque sisters with live video by Netia Jones and live electronics performed by Chalmin himself. His other compositions include: a piece for organ constellation premiered at Variations Festival Nantes, a piece for 100 pianos, piano orchestra premiered at paris philharmonie, a ballet star-cross'd lovers for two pianos, a drums electronics and guitar composition created at the Cité de la musique in Paris (recorded for Deutsche Grammophon), and original music for Madonna's short film Her-story filmed by Luigi & Iango.

About ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann 

ArKtype specializes in new work development and touring worldwide. His past work includes projects with Kaneza Schaal, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Daniel Fish, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar, Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, John Cameron Mitchell and Tony Taccone. Recent premieres include 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s A THOUSAND WAYS, nora chipaumire’s NEHANDA, Sam Green’s 32 SOUNDS with JD Samson, Bryce Dessner’s TRIPTYCH (EYES OF ONE ON ANOTHER) directed by Kaneza Schaal, John Cameron Mitchell’s THE ORIGIN OF LOVE, Kaneza Schaal & Christopher Myers’ CARTOGRAPHY, Sam Green & Kronos Quartet’s A THOUSAND THOUGHTS, Big Dance Theater / Mikhail Baryshnikov’s MAN IN A CASE, and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater’s NOT BY BREAD ALONE. Ongoing collaborations include 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Sam Green, Timothy White Eagle, Andrew Schneider, Big Dance Theater, Toshi Reagon, and Compagnia T.P.O. Upcoming premieres include Justin Peck & Sufjan Stevens’ ILLINOIS and Scott Shepherd’s THIS IGNORANT PRESENT. He is a founding member of CIPA (Creative & Independent Producer Alliance). More information at arktype.org.