This event is now full, but you can add your name to Firelight’s waitlist here.

An innovative musical and storytelling experience, Root Song invites audiences to listen beyond our species and rediscover the ancient wisdom of trees. To be premiered at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia in May 2026, this project interweaves the voices of Grammy-award-winning Roomful of Teeth — an eight-voice “singing forest” — with science and storytelling, transforming the unseen realities of the woodland into a musical conversation. With music by acclaimed composer Christopher Theofanidis, libretto by poet Melissa Studdard, and storytelling by Narragansett artist Tchin, Root Song asks: What can trees teach us about how to live, listen, and be human at this pivotal moment?

In collaboration with Firelight Theatre Workshop, Root Song will be brought from page to stage over four days at the Harris Center in early May. Harris Center teacher-naturalist and Root Song director Jazimina Creamer-MacNeil invites you to join in the creation of this important work by being Root Song’s very first audience during this preview performance.

2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Harris Center’s new Eleanor Briggs Open Lodge. Space is limited, and registration is now full. You can add your name to the waitlist here. For more information, including questions about accessibility, contact Jazimina.

Co-sponsored by the Harris Center for Conservation Education and Firelight Theatre Workshop.

Root Song Artists

About Roomful of Teeth

Roomful of Teeth is a Grammy-winning vocal band dedicated to expanding the expressive potential of the human voice. By engaging collaboratively with artists, thinkers, and community leaders from around the world, the group seeks to uplift and amplify voices old and new while creating and performing meaningful and adventurous music.

Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells and incubated at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, the ensemble developed its distinctive sound through intensive study with master singers from diverse traditions. Their experimental process challenges assumptions about vocal limits and continually redefines what the human voice can do.

Roomful of Teeth has built a substantial and growing repertoire in collaboration with many of today’s leading composers and artists. As the artistic landscape evolves, the group continues to explore new technologies and storytelling projects rooted in place, home, and community — approaching their work with curiosity, rigor, and gratitude.

About Tchin

​Tchin (pronounced ‘chin) is a nationally known, multi-award winning artist. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and lived in rural Virginia and Rhode Island where he received his early schooling. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. Tchin is an accomplished musician, folklorist, jeweler, and teacher. He is the author of the children’s book Rabbit’s Wish for Snow and travels the country sharing Indigenous stories and music.

He’s produced four Native flute music albums, played with the Public Orchestra, Rehearsing Philadelphia, and collaborated most recently with the Berklee School of Music’s Intersectional Soundbox Archive and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Tchin jewelry has been featured in Vogue and won numerous first-place prizes at SWAIA Indian Market. Tchin currently teaches metalsmithing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.  team

About Christopher Theofanidis

Christopher Theofanidis’ music has been performed by many of the world’s leading performing arts organizations, from the London Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic to the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, and the American Ballet Theatre. He is a two-time Grammy nominee for best composition, and his Viola Concerto, recorded with David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony with Richard O’Neill soloist, won the 2021 Grammy for Best Instrumental Solo.

Theofanidis’ work, Rainbow Body, is one of the most performed works in recent decades, having been performed by over 200 orchestras worldwide. Mr. Theofanidis is currently coordinator of the composition programs at Yale University and the Aspen Music Festival, and has taught at the Juilliard School and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.

About Melissa Studdard

Melissa Studdard is the author of several books, including the poetry collections Dear Selection Committee and I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast. Her work has appeared in POETRY, Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Best American Poetry, among many others.

As a librettist and lyricist, she has received commissions from institutions including the Aspen Music Festival, Wolf Trap, and the Yale Glee Club, with performances by ensembles such as Roomful of Teeth, The Washington Chorus, and Ars Nova Singers. Her work has earned numerous national and international awards and has been adapted into film and other public art forms.

Studdard is a past president of AWP’s Women’s Caucus and former executive producer and host of VIDA Voices & Views. She co-hosts the YouTube podcast Poems You Need and has held residencies at The Hermitage Artist Retreat, Centrum, Desert Rat, and The Betsy-South Beach.

About Jazimina Creamer-McNeil

Jazimina Creamer-MacNeil is a director, creative producer, singing actor, educator, and wild blueberry picker rooted in the beautiful and artistically fertile Monadnock region of New Hampshire. Her work focuses on how live performance can be a stitch in the great reweaving of humanity back into reciprocal kinship with the rest of life on this good, green Earth.

Jazimina creates interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of music, storytelling, and nature, including Danika the Rose and Love Like Water. In collaboration with the Harris Center for Conservation Education and Electric Earth Concerts, she developed the site-specific musical hikes The Singing Stream and In Fine Feather.

Jazimina is also a company member of the award-winning Firelight Theatre Workshop, devising and performing immersive, community-based works. She also serves as a teacher-naturalist with the Harris Center and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Manhattan School of Music.

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