June 20
– Timber 10 year Anniversary concert
On June 20 from noon to midnight (EDT) Bang on a Can presents 12 hours of streaming performances of Michael Gordon’s Timber by ensembles from around the World. The show includes interviews with performers and collaborators, archival videos, remixes, and more!
The performers are:
Slagwerk Den Haag and Club Guy & Roni dance (Netherlands)Ensemble Tactus (France)Haushcka (Germany)Institut für Musik Universität Kassel (Germany)SaNeNa (Turkey)MonoCollective (Italy)Ictus Ensemble (Belgium)Grupo de Percussão (Portugal) and Roberto Olivan dance (Spain)Ensemble Perceum (Uruguay)Versus8 (Mexico)Left Edge Percussion (USA)Steven Schick (USA)Nief Norf (USA)University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble (USA)Mantra Percussion (USA)
Timber was originally performed in sections in 2010 by Slagwerk Den Haag [SDH] for dance performances with the Dutch company Club Guy and Roni (who co-commissioned Timber with SDH and the American ensemble Mantra Percussion). The complete work was finally premiered in concert on June 16, 2011 at the Korzo Theatre in The Netherlands by Slagwerk Den Haag.
It has since been performed more than 150 times over the past decade by dozens of ensembles (and dance companies) from over 20 countries.
An hour-long tour de force for six percussionists, Timber is scored for six pieces of wood, known as simantras — instruments from the Eastern Orthodox liturgy. Using these simple instruments (cut to varying pitches from low to high) Gordon shapes the music in both polyrhythmic and dynamic waves of textures; often each players’ hands are in separate rhythmic ‘worlds’, each traversing a different dynamic contour from loud to soft to loud.
When amplified in a resonant space the “glorious overtones produced from this limited array has to be heard to be believed.” (TimeOut Chicago) What can be described as an aurora borealis of sound, the overtones from the instruments combine to create hidden melodies — an other-worldy mix of timbres and harmonies that float and shimmer above the ensemble. “It has a halo, an ethereal aura of sound.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)
This marathon streaming event marks a new decade for the work.
LOUD Weekend Returns! July 30-31 at MASS MoCA
We’re Back! For 2021 we’re planning two solid days of concert, outdoors and in, for the intrepid music fan ready to brave the new world of new music for new times. MASS MoCA is the place. The Bang on a Can All-Stars together in and separate, music from co-founders Gordon, Lang, Wolfe, lots more, and world premieres of new works from our Summer Composition Fellows – tomorrow’s bright stars of contemporary music. Be there! More info coming, and tickets on sale in June. Stay tuned…
Please Support Terry Riley’s “Autodreamographical Tales”
Terry Riley’s practice of writing down his dreams in a personal journal became the basic for Autodreamographical Tales – a wildly unique creation from one of America’s most iconic composers. Riley set some of these dreams to music and created a demo of the tales. The songs offer an uncommonly special connection with Terry, who narrates each tale himself. We heard the demos and proposed realizing Autodreamographical Tales with Terry and the Bang on a Can All-Stars.
To our great delight, he agreed!
Please support the album Autodreamographical Tales. We will send you an early copy of the record, and if you can swing $100 or more the record will be signed by Terry Riley himself!
Film of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer: Online through Aug 4!
Cal Performances at Home premieres a new film, Steel Hammer, based on the acclaimed oratorio by Julia Wolfe. Steel Hammer is a meditation on over 200 versions of the “John Henry” folk ballad. The various versions—based on hearsay, recollection, and tall tales—reveal both the evolution of the story, as well as the timeless tale of human versus machine.
The film is available on demand through August 4.
The Cal Performances site also includes Julia’s interview with Jeremy Geffen, a feature from Jonathan Leal in San Francisco Classical Voice, and of course program notes!
PLEASE COMPLETE OUR SURVEY!
Welome to CANLAND
– Bang on a Can's new archive
Since 1987 we’ve done our best to save, record and video as many of our programs as possible. We’ve now put the finishing touches on an ALL ACCESS archive of all 33 years of music-making. We’re calling it CanLand. Our vision for CanLand is that it’s not just a museum-like catalog, but a meeting place for the extraordinary world we have built together over these many years, a place to connect and reconnect with the music, the composers, the performers, the experiences we’ve shared, and most important, with one another during this very unusual time of separation.