Estelí Gomez, Lawrence professor and 3-time Grammy winner, talks experience at awards

APPLETON — On Monday morning, Estelí Gomez arrived in Appleton on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles. She had just won a Grammy Award, and had to get back to teach at Lawrence University.

In addition to being a vocal professor at the Appleton university, Gomez is a member of the octet Roomful of Teeth, who took home the Grammy Sunday night for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their 2023 album "Rough Magic." The ensemble's music features an array of vocal styles and techniques, and, according to their website, aims to explore "the expressive potential of the human voice" through experimenting and pushing boundaries.

Gomez has been a part of Roomful of Teeth since its formation in 2009. The group previously took home a Grammy Award in 2014, winning in the same category as they did this year for their self-titled debut album. The group was again nominated in 2016 for their second album.

In 2017, Gomez received her second Grammy Award for her role in contributing to Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble's album "Sing Me Home," which won Best World Music Album that year.

Gomez attended the Grammy Awards in 2014 and again in 2022, with Austin-based singing group Conspirare, because she was a soloist on their album nominated for Best Choral Performance.

In her office at Lawrence University's Music-Drama Center that afternoon, speaking with the Post-Crescent, Gomez said she was still wearing her Grammy makeup from the night before. She'd had a whirlwind few days, and would hardly be in Appleton 24 hours before catching a flight to Paris

The Post-Crescent caught up with Gomez to talk about the Grammys, Lawrence University and her music experience. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

What was your Grammy experience like this year?

We had been on tour for the past about eight days. We were in San Francisco performing with an amazing singer-songwriter named Gabriel Kahane, who wrote some awesome pieces for us that we premiered in Seattle and then brought to San Francisco audiences. We did some concerts in Healdsburg with an amazing aerial dance troupe called BANDALOOP, where we, like, sang the soundtrack for these aerial dancers in an art gallery in wine country, northern California. We went down to Santa Barbara and did some outreach with some awesome composers and jazz choirs at a high school there. We were all prepared to do a concert in Santa Barbara the night before the Grammys, and it got rained out really because of possible mudslides.

So, we then drove to Los Angeles on the night of Feb. 3. And we actually got to sleep in Los Angeles. Like, be there the night before. We were supposed to drive there the day of, get ready in a hurry, maybe in a hotel bathroom, or something weird. But yeah, managed to actually get ready in peace at an Airbnb.

And went and had a lovely time. And then when our names were called, we went through the circuit and had a sweet time altogether. And lots of pictures and celebration.

You're not a newbie to the Grammy Awards. What have your other experiences been like — and how do they compare?

This was my third time going to the Grammys.

We performed at the Grammys in 2014 — so that's exactly 10 years ago. (That year) I had been performing, doing concerts, in Austin, Texas, and I had to fly early morning. I got dressed in the LAX bathroom for the Grammys.

The first experience was like, fly in, be really kind of stressed, and like, just do it all. Somebody else did our hair and makeup because we were performers, and it was kind of a relief in that way. But I thought nothing of the possibility of winning. So was shocked, like completely shocked — like, 'Oh, my God, I have to run in these heels right now' shocked — when we won. And then went through the winners press circle and all of those things.

In 2022, it was in Las Vegas, because of COVID ... I'd never been to Las Vegas, and that was a different experience altogether, too.

So luckily, now that we've had more experience, last night was less stressful.

How would you describe Roomful of Teeth's music?

We learn from different practitioners and amazing teachers of vocal techniques from around the world who interact with us as musical teachers and collaborators.

This is our 15th year together since we started in 2009. Our first year, we invited a Tuvan throat singing group called Alash Ensemble, we invited a specialist in Swiss yodeling, and then we invited a specialist in belting.

And so by learning the basics of these techniques, we started to explore our voices in ways that we maybe hadn't had as much access to in our previous training. That didn't mean that we became experts in any of these things, but it did mean that we started to explore some different sonic possibilities as a group, and as individuals.

Then the composers who were in the same room as us, and who were starting to figure out, you know, think through some ideas of 'Ooh, what would this texture sound like? What would this be like?' — they began to write music for us.

And then we said, 'okay, I can only do that for 10 seconds, otherwise, I get really dry.' Or, 'I can only do this really high or really low.' So we're not co-writing, but definitely collaborating on the music being written for us, with the inspiration of a lot of new-to-us sounds.

Everybody cross-culturally who sings has the same instrument. So it's really exciting to think about the idea that we can play with that instrument, and we can try a lot of different types of singing, and we can share with one another. Hence the idea of 'roomful of teeth' — like chamber music for voices, that everybody has this 'roomful of teeth' to play around with, and that we can make chamber music with this thing.

So you knew from the start that joining Roomful of Teeth would be an educational experience?

Absolutely. All of us were hired — the founder, whose name is Brad Wells, he had the idea and hosted auditions over a couple of years. It took a while to find the eight of us.

It took time, I think, to find the combination of people who were excited about the prospect of being totally new to these (singing styles) — I mean, it's very vulnerable. Because you want to be really good, and you're just not.

But also, in some aspect, you have to be really good at one thing, and that's sight reading. You have to be really good at preparing things quickly, because then the composers start to throw things at you fast.

At the beginning, we were barely a group. We were a collective of people who liked to try to make sounds together. ... But (we were) just trying to live in that space of wonderment, and of course, creativity, collaboration. And we still try to be in that space with our collaborators, anybody who we're working with who's writing music for us.

You joined the Lawrence University faculty in 2019. What brought you there?

Right after winning the Grammy with Roomful (in 2014), the first residency that Roomful of Teeth did was at Lawrence — teaching at Lawrence and performing a concert in February 2014.

I was so taken with how wonderful this school is and how amazing the students are, and just loved the dean, Brian Pertl. And we particularly were really just so moved and grateful for how how well-integrated the residency was, in terms of teachers and performers. We felt really well-utilized by Lawrence. We were teaching not just in the voice department, but also music business, and, like talking to the entrepreneurship courses, talking to the composition classes about writing new music ... it wasn't just one facet of what the group does.

And so a few years later, when Brian reached out and said, 'Hey, this job sounds like you, why haven't you applied?' I looked at it, and it said, soprano performance experience preferred, no doctorate required, must teach in multiple styles. And I was like, 'Ooh. That does sound like me.'

What were some highlights of being at the Grammys this year?

Of course, legends, you know, Jon Batiste and Stevie Wonder. And obviously Joni Mitchell.

It's always very special ... I perform for large audiences, and, you know, in some formal settings. But I do not perform in sports arenas. Like, I don't perform for thousands and thousands of screaming people. It's just a very different environment to then be an audience member in that too. I think it's pretty unlikely that I'll find myself necessarily like, going to lots of Billie Eilish concerts — however, she's amazing.

It's a real gift to be there altogether with these musicians who are devoting their lives to their craft, and we're all just in it celebrating, like, 'you did good, you did good, you did good.' Whether anyone wins or not, it's of course a subjective thing to win. But everybody's there, just having worked really hard for this thing.

RELATED: Lawrence University professor nominated for Grammy Awards as part of vocal ensemble

Kelli Arseneau can be reached at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Estelí Gomez, of Lawrence University, talks Grammy win, Roomful of Teeth