Bang on a Can

People's Commissioning Fund

History and Structure

The Performances: People’s Commissioning Fund Week

The People’s Commissioning Fund was created to provide gifted experimental composers with a unique opportunity to write for a world-renowned ensemble and to create a community of musicians and member-commissioners that brings listeners closer to the music. Each spring, the All-Stars gather in New York to rehearse new PCF works with composers and premiere them at the Bang on a Can People’s Commissioning Fund concert. The PCF Week includes:

• Open Rehearsal: Each year, two days prior to the PCF Concert, more than 50 people join our Artistic Directors, PCF composers, and the All-Stars at its rehearsal studio to experience the final stages of the All-Stars/composers collaboration. The All-Stars are invested in the rehearsal process with the composers, making final changes to their scores during this time. It is important to share this process with our audiences, especially people who feel a sense of ownership of the project they helped to support. With the 2002 inception of our Summer Institute of Music at MASS MoCA, the Open Rehearsal is also attended by young artists who participated in the residency.
• People’s Commissioning Fund Concert: Each year, the Week culminates with our popular PCF Concert that has been presented at the Knitting Factory (1997), the Miller Theatre (1999 and 2002), Merkin Concert Hall (2001), Symphony Space (2003) and again at Merkin Hall (2005). Please peruse the attached New York Times piece on the concert. We wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments of the Times' Anne Midgette, when she wrote that the music was "…alive, eminently cool and actually about something." We have taken a major step forward towards making PCF an important part of the NYC cultural calendar. We've entered into a long-term commitment with Merkin Hall to present these concerts each February. The regularity of this arrangement will certainly add to the perceived permanence of the event, and ensure that all New York knows that the coldest month is also the best month for new music!
• PCF Broadcast on WNYC-FM: Each year, we collaborate with WNYC-FM on producing live broadcasts of PCF Concerts including interviews with composers on its pioneering show, New Sounds. These broadcasts are repeated throughout the year, and two months prior to the PCF Week, New Sounds presents a preview show of selections from previous concerts reaching 50,000 listeners in the tri-state area. The WNYC broadcasts are the best exposure that we are able to offer to any composer – they help us to introduce her music to thousands of people in New York and greater metropolitan area.

Since its inception in 1997, PCF commissions have been offered to more than two dozen innovative composers whose works generated press and recognition from presenters and audiences worldwide. The best pieces make it into the Bang on a Can All-Stars' permanent repertoire, and these works go on to make debuts across the U.S. and throughout Europe and Asia. Past commissions have gone to:

Eve Beglarian, Jeffrey Brooks, Sussan Deyhim, James Fei, Yoav Gal, Annie Gosfield, Erdem Helvacioglu, John Hollenbeck, Cynthia Hopkins, Carla Kihlstedt, John King, Lukas Ligeti, Annea Lockwood, Keeril Makan, Ingram Marshall; Miya Masaoka, Marc Mellits, Thurston Moore, Virgil Moorefield, Joshua Penman, Tristan Perich, Dan Plonsey, Ed Ruchalski, Matthew Shipp, Jim Thirwell, Ken Thomson, Toby Twining, Stefan Weisman, and Pamela Z.