Bang on a Can

BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS The 2011 People’s Commissioning Fund (PCF) Concert. Thursday, February 10, at 7:30pm

Three world premieres commissioned by the people! New York’s electric chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered new works by Bryce Dessner, Karsh Kale and Nick Brooke, at their anticipated annual celebration at Merkin Hall. 2011's PCF concert was a part of the Ecstatic Music Festival.

The PCF is a radical partnership between artists and audiences to commission works from adventurous composers. For more info click here.

“Merkin Hall was a mob scene…At five minutes to 8, the line of ticket buyers snaked out the door…It was an evening that was packed in every sense: with people, with ideas, with music.” —New York Times

A special edition of WNYC’s New Sounds® Live John Schaefer, host

THE COMPOSERS

NICK BROOKE

Nick Brooke mixes musical sampling, singing, and theater into a genre all its own. In his works, vocalists and actors are trained to mimic sampled collages of sound effects, pop songs, and musical ephemera, blurring the line between recording and live performance. His work Tone Test received its premiere at Lincoln Center Festival in 2004; recent theater works Time and Motion Study and Border Towns have premiered at Mass MoCA and HERE. Brooke’s instrumental works have been performed by the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Nash Ensemble of London, Orchestra 2001, Dan Druckman, Speculum Musicae, and New York’s Gamelan Son of Lion. His work has been performed across the U.S. and in Europe, and featured at the Lincoln Center Festival, the Spoleto Festival, and the MATA Series. He has received awards and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, ASCAP, the Rockefeller Foundation, Djerassi, and the MacDowell Colony. Originally a clarinettist, he is also an avid instrument builder, thereminist, and researcher of early musical automata. During a two-year fellowship to Central Java, he studied gamelan and collaborated on musical projects with Javanese composers, dancers, and visual artists. He holds degrees in music composition and philosophy from Oberlin, and a Ph.D from Princeton. He teaches at Bennington College.

BRYCE DESSNER

Bryce Dessner is a composer/guitarist/curator based in New York City, best known as the guitarist for the acclaimed rock band The National. Dessner has also received widespread acclaim as a composer and guitarist for the improvising new music quartet, Clogs. Bryce has performed and/or recorded with some of the world’s most creative musicians including songwriters Sufjan Stevens and Antony Hegarty, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo, composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Michael Gordon, the contemporary ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and visual artist Matthew Ritchie. As a composer, his recent commissions include a Jerome Grant from the American Composer’s Forum and the Kitchen and a commission from Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Dessner’s music has been featured recently by WNYC’s New Sounds Live at Merkin Hall, as well as live performances on BBC 3, France Inter, and Dutch National Radio.  He recently made his feature film debut as score composer for the independent film ‘Turn the River’, written and directed by actor Chris Eigman. Dessner is also the creator and artistic director of the acclaimed Music Now Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio and co-founder and owner of the Brassland record label, which is home to a diverse group of artists including the celebrated young composer Nico Muhly and cellist Erik Friedlander.

KARSH KALE

One of electronic music’s leading fusion artist, Karsh Kale— composer, producer, tabla player, multiinstrumentalist and overall showman—has made his mark on global music with genre-bending fusions of electronic, Indian classical music, rock, jazz and hip-hop. Renowned for his collaborations, Kale’s work with a wide spectrum of artists including Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar, Sting, and Herbie Hancock is a testament to his versatility and unique musical talent. A predominately self-taught musician, Kale grew up steeped in classical music and film music from India and has harnessed his own ingenuity and experimental nature to develop his signature “Electric Tabla” style. Kale has also been active in the world of film scoring for both crossover and Bollywood films with his production team MPKK with the Midival Punditz. He is also known for his production and remixing skills for the dance floor and beyond, including mixes for artists such as Paula Cole, DJ Spooky, The Cure,  Midival Punditz, Yoko Ono, and Anne Rani. Kale has recently completed his 5th solo album titled CINEMA which is due out for release early 2011.