COUNTERTENOR
April 17 & 18, 2025 | 7:30pm
National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY
From Mickey Mouse to Michael Jackson, and traditional Hawaiian song to Kabuki, the falsetto sound is
deeply ingrained within our global consciousness. But what does it evoke, and what does it express?
This synesthetic concert experience blends the intangibility of the countertenor voice with the invisibility
of smell molecules. It explores how unseen elements––sound and smell––can provoke emotion and
imprint long-lasting memories.
In collaboration with chemist, linguist, and artist Sissel Tolaas, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo
delves into both the wide-ranging cultural and an intimate personal history of falsetto. Through the use of
smell, collective memories are created during the performance, activated in tandem with the sound of
the voice. This live, 75-minute show features an evocative musical program, carefully woven together
using abstract smell molecules to encode distinct aspects of the COUNTERTENOR.
Costanzo is joined by an ensemble of 15 musicians, performing a program spanning over 400 years of
music from the late Renaissance to the present, including pieces by John Dowland, Philip Glass,
Osvaldo Golijov, Claudio Monteverdi, Thomas Morley, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Klaus Nomi, Frankie
Valli, Antonio Vivaldi, and more, with arrangements by Dan Schlosberg.
This performance contains smell experiences.
FEATURING:
Anthony Roth Costanzo*, countertenor & creator
Sissel Tolaas, SMELL RE_searcher & artist
Dan Schlosberg, music director
Landon Wilson, curator & producer
Brandon Stirling Baker, lighting designer
Amir Farsi, flute
Paul Wonjin Cho, clarinet/basset horn
Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet/bass clarinet
Alex Bender, trumpet
Nicolee Kuester, horn
Burt Mason, trombone
David Cossin, percussion
Chelsea Lane, harp
Dan Schlosberg, keyboards and direction
Landon Wilson, keyboards
Dušan Balarin, theorbo/lute/electric guitar
Keir GoGwilt*, violin
Miranda Cuckson*, violin/viola
Colin Brookes, viola
Coleman Itzkoff*, cello
Eleonore Oppenheim, contrabass
Jacob Mallinson Bird, dramaturg
Ibrahim Kombarji, design & installation support
Emmy Skensved, SMELL RE_searchLab assistant
T.J. Keanu Tariom, Hawaiian diction coach
Yanyi Wang, neuroart researcher
Yvonne Lian & Zhonghao Wang, neuroart research assistants
*denotes member of AMOC
The world premiere of COUNTERTENOR is developed and presented with National Sawdust, in
celebration of their 10th Anniversary Season. Created in partnership with Bayer/Kultur and SMELL
RE_searchLab Berlin, this project is generously funded by Barbara Walkowski and Rachel & Daniel
Widawsky, with additional funding by AMOC*.
SMELL development supported by Symrise NY.
Special thanks to Mauro Hertig and Józefina Chętko.
The creative team gratefully acknowledges the participants of the cognitive neuroscience study, which
was specifically designed to research, measure, and analyze brain activity while listening to the music for
COUNTERTENOR, helping to fine-tune the audience’s engagement with smell.
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