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“Judd Greenstein's “Montmartre” celebrates the moment in French music when sound was elevated to a level equal to that of pitch and rhythm. It brilliantly creates a groove of chugging rhythms, with yodeling and belting over them.” - David Weininger, The Boston Globe
“Judd Greenstein’s Montmartre mixed throat singing, yodeling, and bell imitations in ways that melded rather than clashed.” - John Y. Lawrence, Chicago Classical Review
“Judd Greenstein’s Montmartre makes dexterous use of nasal, edgy sounds that, with the aid of amplification, produced rich overtones. This work, too, pulses with rhythm, the work’s energy dutifully supplied by the ensemble’s low voices.” - Aaron Keebaugh, Boston Classical Review
“They opened with a Judd Greenstein piece titled Montmartre. Greenstein is a showy composer and this piece was characteristic, but it had melody to match the theatrics: the women punching in contrapuntally against the mens’ low, oscillating, pulsing throat-singing. The group switched nimbly to lushly shifting ambient harmonies with intertwined call-and-response, soprano Virginia Warnken bringing its central crescendo to a vivid peak. The men ended it with a triumphantly flangey swirl of throat-singing – it’s one thing to do that individually, it’s another to do it in harmony and with the kind of precision they showed off here.” — Lucid Culture
“Brad Wells, the informal MC for the evening, explained the motivation behind the title of Judd Greenstein’s heavy, groove-oriented, Montmartre (2009), named after a neighborhood in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, a stomping ground of early 20th-century composers like Debussy and Ravel. Greenstein aptly recognized a kinship between these composers and Roomful of Teeth–the former raised texture, timbre, and color to the level of melody, harmony, and counterpoint for the first time in instrumental music and the latter opens up comparable territory for the voice.” - Matthew Heck, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
“Two pieces by Judd Greenstein rounded out the program, beginning with Run Away, composed specifically for Virginia Kelsey, who took the plangent solo part again here. The male voices accompanied with throat-singing techniques, and the other women provided Kelsey with some melodic echoes. Greenstein’s Montmartre added a final virtuosic blast to conclude this bracing concert, with remarkable rhythmic interplay from all voices, somehow navigating the dizzying metric shifts without losing any of the dance-like fervor.” - Charles T. Downey, Washington Classical Review
“The hourlong performance also included…Judd Greenstein’s mesmeric, pulsating Montmartre” - Ronni Reich, The Star-Ledger
