Daily Concerts @ MASS MoCA
– Now thru July 29
If you are lucky enough to visit MASS MoCA In the coming days you are likely to hear sounds coming from every nook and cranny. But at 1:30 and 4:30 PM the fellows and faculty of the summer festival present extraordinary music to the public, free with museum admission. Best of all, these uncommon performances happen in and among the art itself.
Monday, July 26
1:30PM
Julian Velasco (bari sax) and Lila Meretzky (voice)
Work Title: Sea Glass Partita
Composer: Lila Meretzky
Gallery: Finch
Performer: Raina Arnett
Instrument: Violin
Work Title: Rhapsodic Musings
Composer: Elliott Carter
Gallery: Turrell C.A.V.U.
Performer: Raina Arnett
Instrument: Violin
Work Title: Nocturne
Composer: Kaija Saariaho
Gallery: Turrell C.A.V.U.
Performer: Raina Arnett
Instrument: Violin
Work Title: Andante from Sonata in a minor
Composer: J.S. Bach
Gallery: Turrell C.A.V.U.
4:30PM: (in Wardwell)
Bang on a Can Festival Fellows and Faculty perform Andriessen and Martland
Steve Martland – Horses of Instruction (1994)
Louis Andriessen – Workers Union (1975)
Saxophone, Julian Velasco
Percussion, Riley Palmer
Piano, Andrew Anderson
electric guitar, Mark Stewart
Cello, Arlen Hlusko
bass/bass guitar, Gregg August
LOUD Weekend @ MASS MoCA
– Special Guests Kronos Quartet!
Bang on a Can and MASS MoCA Present
LOUD Weekend
Friday, July 30 & Saturday, July 31, 2021
We’re back! We’re live! We’re LOUD WEEKEND! This year we welcome our friends the Kronos Quartet, the intrepid troubadours of experimental music who come bearing ear-bending world premieres by Terry Riley, Mary Kouyoumdjian and Sky Macklay. We pay tribute to Martin Bresnick, a shining light of American music celebrating his 75th birthday. We open the second LW as we did the first, with the overlooked, and now newly discovered minimalist giant Julius Eastman. We walk into the wondrous world of Dana Jessen and her switched-on bassoon featuring George Lewis’s ground-shaking Seismologic. We welcome the joyous jazz-infused music of singer/violinist Mazz Swift. We take an other-worldly trip into Gérard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum. Robert Honstein takes us on an exquisite sonic walking tour through the rooms of his childhood home. We are transported into the voices, songs and stories that run through Nathalie Joachim’s powerful Famn d’Ayiti. And so much more!
We pay special tribute to our friend and mentor, the late-great Louis Andriessen. And we are honored to present the world premiere of one of Frederic Rzewski’s last compositions, Amoramaro, which he wrote for the amazing pianist Lisa Moore.
We spent the pandemic presenting 10 online solo marathons – commissioning composers, supporting musicians, doing what we could to keep the experimental music world alive. Running throughout Loud Weekend are 19 of these Pandemic Solos, all receiving their first performances in front of a live audience, all commissioned by Bang on a Can. Plus – a highlight of every summer – world premieres by the newest freshest voices of the Composer Fellows!
A fully loaded, 2-day, eclectic super-mix of minimal, experimental and electronic music
General Admission 2-Day Pass $95; Preferred 2-Day Pass $150
MASS MoCA Member Pre-sale Thursday, June 24 at 12pm EDT
General Tickets Available Friday, June 25 at 12pm EDT
Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA hourly schedule (subject to change):
Friday, July 30, 2021: 4pm-11pm
3:30pm
O of OI (The Orchestra of Original Instruments)
[Front Courtyard]
4:00pm
JULIUS EASTMAN, Femenine
[Hunter Center]
5;30pm
LISA MOORE plays FREDERIC RZEWSKI’s Amoramaro (World Premiere) and more
Philip Glass Mad Rush | Don Byron Seven Etudes | Frederic Rzewski Amoramaro | Martin Bresnick Ishi’s Song, Bundists
[Building 6 Event Space]
5:30pm
ARLEN HLUSKO plays “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can
World premieres by Gabriel Kahane, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Leyla McCalla [Spencer Finch Gallery]
6:45pm
MARTIN BRESNICK 75TH BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE
Martin Bresnick Caprichos Enfaticos and Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano
[Hunter Center]
8:15pm
Bang on a Can Summer Festival Faculty play “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can
TODD REYNOLDS plays world premiere by Dai Wei and music by Paul De Jong
LAUREN RADNOFSKY plays world premiere by Brad Lubman
GREGG AUGUST plays world premiere by Ailie Robertson
[Club B10]
8:15pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play music by Louis Andriessen, Philip Glass, and Meredith Monk
Meredith Monk Spaceship (arr. Michael Gordon) | Louis Andriessen Workers Union | Philip Glass Closing (arr. Michael Riesman)
[Building 6 Event Space]
9:00pm
KRONOS QUARTET plays music by Jlin, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Tanya Tagaq, Stacy Garrop, Mary Kouyoumdjian*, Abel Meeropol, Antonio Haskell, Jacob Garchick (*world premiere)[Hunter Center]
10:15pm
GÉRARD GRISEY, Vortex Temporum
[Building 6 Event Space]
10:15pm
BANDA DE LOS MUERTOS
[The Chalet]
Saturday, July 31, 2021: 10:30am-11pm
10:30am
“Listening Session” with DAVID HARRINGTON (Kronos Quartet)
[Club B10]
11:00am
ROBERT BLACK plays “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can
World premieres by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, Jakhongir Shukur, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir
[Building 6 Events Space]
12:00pm
NEWEST VOICES WORLD PREMIERE COMPOSER CONCERT
Music by Nathan Bales, Erich Barganier, Christian Quiñones, Theo Baer, Melika Fitzhugh, Brian Krock, Lila Meretzky
[Hunter Center]
1:45pm
DANA JESSEN plays Through a Fragile Traverse with video by Eli Stine
Dana Jessen, Through a Fragile Traverse plus George Lewis, Seismologic
[Club B10]
2:00pm
MICHAEL GORDON, Weather One | DAVID LANG, almost all the time
[Building 6 Events Space]
3:00pm
STEVE REICH, Quartet | JULIA WOLFE, Dark Full Ride
[Hunter Center]
4:00pm
ROBERT HONSTEIN, Soul House
[Building 6 Events Space]
4:15pm
SHELLEY WASHINGTON, Uniforms, Silk, Big Talk
[Club B10]
5:00pm
NATHALIE JOACHIM sings Fanm d’Ayiti
[Hunter Center]
6:00pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can
World premieres by Anna Clyne, Nick Dunston, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Aeryn Santillan.
[Club B10]
6:00pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can
World premieres by Leila Adu, Jeffrey Brooks, Sophie Cash, Florent Ghys, Trevor Weston.
[Hunter Center]
7:00pm
15-minute POP UP TBA?
7:30pm
KRONOS QUARTET plays music by Nicole Lizee, Terry Riley*, Soo Yeon Lyuh, Bryce Dessner, Sky Macklay*, Michael Gordon (*world premiere)
[Hunter Center]
9:00pm
MAZZ SWIFT
[Club B10]
9:00pm
SOO-YEON LYUH plays music for the Haegum
[The Chalet]
10:00pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play TERRY RILEY, Autodreamographical Tales
[Hunter Center]
“I’ve rarely witnessed such a seamless melding of art and music.” – New York Magazine
“nothing could have prepared me for the whirlwind…” – The Boston Globe
Tribute to Louis Andriessen
Everyone at Bang on a Can has been devastated by the loss of our friend, the great Dutch composer Louis Andriessen.
Our musical relationship with Louis goes back before Bang on a Can, to when we were young composers trying to figure out what making music could mean. As he did for young composers everywhere, he welcomed us, he taught us, he gave us a glimpse into a world in which a composer could be open to radical innovation, open to challenging music’s social place and power, open to building a community of composers and musicians who cared about each other, listened to each other, and helped each other. We learned so much from him.
Louis’ music has been a huge presence at Bang on a Can. One of the centerpieces of our very first event, the 1987 Marathon, was the US premiere of the 2 piano version of Louis’ De Staat, played by the fantastic Dutch group Pianoduo. Over the years we’ve performed Louis’ music many many times – the New York premiere of his monumental work De Tijd, the premiere of his heartbreaking piece with film – Life – which we commissioned and toured around the world, plus countless performances of Hoketus, Workers Union and Hout, and many more.
These performances all flowed from Louis’ greatness as a composer, but he meant so much more to us than that. We were constantly refreshed by his rebellious do-it-yourself spirit, his relentless pursuit of big ideas, his courageous and virtuosic impracticality, his fierce commitment to art, and the community of all who share it. His belief in the artistic spirit inspired us, embraced us, encouraged us, and we will continue to live with his spirit in our hearts.
-Michael, David, Julie
Michael Gordon’s JULY
– 31 short piano pieces
In spring of 2020, in isolation, I wrote a short piano piece every day. At the end of the day I would send the piece to the pianist Vicky Chow. On each day in July 2020, Vicky released the 31 piano works, one a day, on Instagram. Now in 2021 we are sharing July with an amazing array of pianists. — Michael Gordon