Guitarist

Founded in 2018, the Dream House Quartet has the potential to permanently shift genre boundaries that were thought to be fixed. The quartet succeeds in bringing classical and contemporary music into completely new forms as a matter of course. The members can draw on decades of musical expertise: pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque are considered luminaries on the piano and have always felt just as at home in classical music as in minimal music, jazz or pop music. The two sisters are joined by Grammy-winning guitarist, composer and founding member of The National Bryce Dessner and composer, musician and producer David Chalmin, also on guitar. Together they perform radical commissions from visionary composers and key contemporary works from the past half century.

EPSG:4326

Katia & Marielle Labèque / Bryce Dessner / David Chalmin

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms, featuring luminaries the Katia and Marielle Labèque on dueling pianos along with acclaimed composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner (The National) and David Chalmin (innocence, la terre invisible) performing radical new commissions from visionary composers and pivotal contemporary works of the last half century. In its first-ever world tour, this all-star ensemble will bring singular interpretations of several highly influential works of minimalist pioneers and contemporary composers to Austin for the first time. The original double album Minimalist Dream House (released in 2013) gathered interpretations of compositions by pioneers of minimalism and their successors, including Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt, Thom Yorke, Aphex Twin and Brian Eno – artists who bend musical time and space as much as the Labèques, while enjoying the paradoxical freedom of minimalism’s limitations. The Austin premiere of Dream House Quartet will feature new works by Dessner and Chalmin (commissioned for the group) as well as works by Meredith Monk, Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

Dream House Quartet

Bass Concert Hall

In this non-traditional programme, we will hear the Czech premiere of Carolyn by the Sea by Bryce Dessner. The composer himself will play one of the solo parts in this double concerto for guitar. Then we will remember a favourite of Dessner, Benjamin Britten, who takes us to the stormy coast of East Anglia. However, we begin and end with a favourite composer of Jakub Hrůša: Josef Suk.

Guitarist

David Chalmin

Events

Upcoming events

4 - 6 Feb, 2026

Czech Philharmonic • Bryce Dessner · Czech Philharmonic

Past events

Jul 1, 2025

Katia & Marielle Labèque / Bryce Dessner / David Chalmin · Elbphilharmonie

Apr 25, 2023

Dream House Quartet · Texas Performing Arts

About

David Chalmin hasn't added a bio