Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA – performances July 12-28
Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA!
The festival includes daily recitals, including our lunchtime recital series performed by festival fellows, July 12-27, Mon-Fri at 1:30 PM!
Here’s the list of shows:
Fri, July 13 – 4:30pm – African drumming
Led by Ghanaian drum and dance master Nani Agbeli, Bang on a Can fellows perform music and dance from Africa. Nani will lead an informal workshop for audience members after the performance.
Sat, July 14 – 11:30am Kids Can Too!
Kids Can Too! invites the whole family to play along with Bang on a Can faculty and fellows. This musical exploration performance-presentation is a great introduction to the wide world of music-making.
Sat, July 14 – 4:30pm – David Cossin and friends
Percussionist David Cossin and friends from the festival perform Petr Kotik’s The Plains at Gordium for 6 percussionists, flute and voice
Mon, July 16 – 4:30pm – Gregg August, bass, and friends
Bassist Gregg August will perform original compositions and arrangements along with friends from the festival.
Tues, July 17 – 4:30pm – Nick Photinos, cello
Award-winning cellist Nick Photinos performs selected solo and electroacoustic music of today, including Nathalie Joachim’s Dam Mwen Yo and more!
Weds, July 18 – 4:30pm – Found Sound Nation.
This performance is the culmination of a 3-day lab involving all the festival fellows and led by Found Sound Nation. Through a series of exercises inspired by Pauline Oliveros‘ Deep Listening pieces and Brian Eno‘s radical spontaneity games we will challenge fellows to create new works in small ensembles that examine performance as creation rather than replication.
Thurs, July 19 – 4:30pm – Ashley Bathgate, cello
“Glorious cellist” (The Washington Post) Ashley Bathgate performs works for solo cello including Songs and Poems by Philip Glass and in manus tuas by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw.
Fri, July 20 – 4:30pm – Todd Reynolds, violin, and friends
Todd Reynolds and friends play new music, by Todd, on a program entitled: “New music for mill towns and lucid avatars”
Friday July 20 – 10pm The Bang-MoCA MASSive Latin Big Band!
Led by Gregg August, percussionist Joe Gonzalez, and tres player Pablo Moya, the Bang on a Can fellows perform for free at the American Legion bar. Bring your dancing shoes!
Sat, July 21 – 4:30pm – Karl Larson, piano
Karl Larson performs a program of contemporary works for solo piano by Jenny Beck, Scott Wollschleger, and Ravi Kittappa.
Sat, July 21 – 8:00pm – Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields
The electric Bang on a Can All-Stars team up with the amazing voices of The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, directed by Julian Wachner, for Julia Wolfe’s haunting and poignant ‘Anthracite Fields,’ an examination of the coal-mining industry so musically and socially provocative that it netted the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music and a Grammy nomination. With visually stunning projections by scenographer Jeff Sugg, Anthracite Fields draws on oral histories, interviews, speeches, geographic descriptions, local rhymes, and coal advertisements to create a work honoring the people who persevered and endured in the Pennsylvania Anthracite coal region during a time when the industry fueled the nation. “This is a major, profound work.” – Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times.
Sun, July 22 – 4:30pm – Mark Stewart: Music for All Folks Present: A 21st Century Hootenanny
Mark Stewart, his musical instrumentarium and the fantastical sound makers of Gunnar Schonbeck. Tap a toe, smile a smile, sing a song. Come and join in. No experience needed!
Mon, July 23 – 4:30pm – World Premiere Composer Concert
Over 40 young composers and performers from around the world debut TEN NEW WORKS written especially for the festival. This year’s new works are composed by: Rafailia Bampasidou, Brooks Frederickson, Eli Greenhoe, Guusje Ingen Housz, Samn Johnson, Stephanie Orlando, Timothy Peterson, Daniel Rhode, Ailie Robertson, and Alicia Jane Turner.
Tues, July 24- 4:30pm – The music of Eve Beglarian
Downtown New York composer and producer Eve Beglarian joins us for pieces that have their roots in literature. Her piece The Marriage of Heaven and Hell comes from her reading of William Blake, her piece Waiting for Billy Floyd comes from reading Eudora Welty. And more tba!
Weds, July 25 – 4:30pm – Vicky Chow, piano
Piano phenom Vicky Chow plays selections from Philip Glass’s monumental Etudes – which have quickly become the twenty-first century’s most significant additions to the international piano repertoire.
Weds July 25 – 7:00pm – Free concert at Windsor Lake!
Our annual blow-out avant-garde variety show!! Bring a blanket.
Thurs, July 26 – 4:30pm – Ken Thomson: Music for String Quartet and Clarinet
Ken Thomson and Summer Festival fellows perform new dynamic, introspective and aggressive works for clarinet and string quartet, including one work-in-progress and one premiere. Plus a rare performance of Perpetual from his heralded 2013 CD collaboration with JACK Quartet, “Thaw.”
Thurs, July 26 – 7:00pm – The music of Joan Tower
Legendary composer Joan Tower joins us for a concert of her witty, spiky chamber music, including her relentless percussion ensemble work DNA.
Fri, July 27 – 4:30pm – performances by festival fellows and faculty.
Performance will include Michael Daugherty‘s Firecracker for oboe and chamber ensemble, and more!
Friday July 27 – 10pm – Bang on a Can Party Night at the Chalet
Join us for live rock and soul tunes, singing, dancing, and more at MASS MoCA’s beer garden
Sat, July 28 – 3:30pm Pre-Marathon Fanfare with the Orchestra of Original Instruments in the MASS MoCA courtyard! The “O of OI” is led by Mark Stewart and is populated by all of the festival fellows.
Sat, July 28 – 4-10pm Bang on a Can Marathon with Steve Reich
More musical “happening” than concert, the Bang on a Can Marathon closes out the Festival in suitably audacious style. The eclectic program includes works from our 2018 guest composer Steve Reich!
Program (in alphabetical order for now!):
Andy Akiho – NO one To kNOW one
Gregg August – Tribute to Guaguanco
Michael Gordon – Yo Shakespeare
Jonathan Bailey Holland – His House is Not of This Land
David Lang – How To Pray
Gyorgy Ligeti – Ramifications
Missy Mazzoli – Vespers for a New Dark Age
Finola Merivale – Emma Are Eye
Steve Reich – Runner
Steve Reich – Radio Rewrite
Steve Reich – Sextet
Dobrinka Tabakova – Such Different Paths
Julia Wolfe – Cha
Iannis Xenakis – Akanthos
Pamela Z – Attention
And join us for a special pre-show extravaganza with the Orchestra of Original Instruments, led by Mark Stewart and performed by all the festival fellows. Share the Marathon experience with hundreds of adventurous listeners, dozens of brilliant performers, great food and drink and of course, big bold art EVERYwhere.
Visit the MASS MoCA festival webpage for more info and ticketing
Here are the 2018 fellows and faculty!