Gabriel Kahane and the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth performed at the Cité de la musique in Paris as part of a weekend celebrating vocal music. The concert highlighted composers who blend influences from folk, rock, and theater into their work. The event took place during an unusually warm autumn evening at the Salle des concerts de la Cité de la musique. Gabriel Kahane performed solo first and then joined Roomful of Teeth, whose members wore casual urban clothing. The group, known as Roomful of Teeth, performed three songs: Baedeker (2016), Model Trains (2016), and To be American (2020). Kahane explained that the first two were inspired by his train journey across the United States following the first election of the current American president. During that trip, he collected personal stories from people he met, which he later compiled into his Book of Travelers. Roomful of Teeth, made up of eight singers—Cameron Beauchamp, Eliza Bagg, Steven Bradshaw, Esteli Gomez, Virginia Kelsey, Sophie Michaux, Thann Scoggin, and Holcombe Waller—performed a piece titled Bits torn from words (2019–2022) by Peter S. Shin, specifically written for Cameron Beauchamp. The composition translates the six stages of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a condition the composer suffers from, into music. The performance explored the expressive range of voice and breath, incorporating elements of the Korean art of sung storytelling called p'ansori, scraping sounds, drone harmonics similar to those of the didgeridoo, and infinite vibratos on syllables or onomatopoeia. Gabriel Kahane joined Roomful of Teeth for the third and final piece, Elevator Songs, which he wrote for them in 2023 and was later released on an album in 2026. The piece consists of eleven vignettes depicting the lives of hotel guests, connected by the elevator. These include a spiritual counseling session, climate grief, the Sisters of Saint-Vincent, a night drive, a child who grew up to become disillusioned, and a chance meeting between a man in a jacuzzi and someone under the influence of drugs. The performance balanced humor with the mundane, sad, or tragic elements of these stories. Each singer took turns narrating their character’s experience, accompanied by Kahane’s guitar, Eliza Bagg’s violin, and the vibraphone played by Thann Scoggin and sometimes Steven Bradshaw. Roomful of Teeth also performed the first movement—Allemande—of Partita for 8 Voices by Caroline Shaw, a former member of the ensemble. The piece is described as a chaotic yet carefully structured composition that blends different musical traditions, classical and otherwise, with repetitive textual elements reminiscent of the writing style of Gertrude Stein. The audience responded enthusiastically, continuing to hum the melodies as they left the concert.