Bang on a Can All-Stars: Can Dance
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS
Robert Black – bass
Vicky Chow – piano
David Cossin – percussion
Arlen Hlusko – cello
Mark Stewart – electric guitar
Ken Thomson – clarinet and bass clarinet
Andrew Cotton – sound engineer
Jeff Sugg – projection and lighting design
PROGRAM:
Angélica Negrón: Turistas with Kookik, a film by Keerati Jinakunwiphat
Henry Threadgill: With or Without Card with Split Womb, a film by Rena Butler
Hildur Guðnadóttir: Illimani with Fear of Dog, a film by Andros Zins-Browne
Trevor Weston: Dig it with The Burglar, a film by Jerron Herman
Julia Wolfe: Into the clouds with film by Andrea Miller
Michael Gordon: July (selections) for solo piano with film by Brian Brooks
Josue Collado Fregoso: Joie de Vivre with Marissa, a film by Pioneer Winter
Qasim Naqvi: Featureless with film by Kyle Marshall
David Lang: interstate with film by Annie-B Parson
All Can Dance Films were commissioned by Bang on a Can with support from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation and the Cheswatyr Foundation.
Joie de Vivre, Dig It, Illamani, Featureless were commissioned for the Bang on a Can All-Stars with the generous support of all the members of the People’s Commissioning Fund and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs.
With or Without Card was commissioned for the Bang on a Can All-Stars by Maria and Robert A. Skirnick.
Interstate was commissioned as part of “Road Trip” by BAM for the 2017 Next Wave Festival and by Stephen A. Block, Robert Braun & Joan Friedman, Leslie Lassiter, Raulee Marcus, New Music USA, Maria & Robert A. Skirnick, Jane and Richard Stewart, with additional support from Jerry Eberhardt and Phil Hettema.
Angélica Negrón: Turistas with Kookik, a film by Keerati Jinakunwiphat
Directed and Choreographed by Keerati Jinakunwiphat
Film and editing by Quinn Wharton
Performed by Kayleigh Kreuser
Special Features: Orapun Puribhat, Vorapun Charumas, Torsak Jinakunwiphat
Music by Angelica Negron
Special thank you to Dance Center Evanston and Joy Kreuser
Dedicated to immigrant families everywhere.
Henry Threadgill: With or Without Card with Split Womb, a film by Rena Butler
Directed and Choreographed by Rena Butler
Video and editing by Joan Dwiartanto
Make-up and styling by Jake Tribus
Performed by Chela Portillo and Kelis Robinson
Music by Henry Threadgill
Film Location: FD Photo Studio (Queens, NY)
Special thanks to Madison Pineda for her work in the process.
Hildur Guðnadóttir: Illimani with Fear of Dog, a film by Andros Zins-Browne
Film by Andros Zins-Browne
Directed by Nat Johnson
Edited by Chelsea Knight
Director of Photography and additional editing by Nat Johnson
Assisted by Naz Riahi and Tameer Park
Coloring by Snejina Latev
Performed by Benjy, Daryl Strawberry, Fauci, Hugo, Jojo, Levon, Moose, Porter, Tuna, and Zora
Music by Hildur Guðnadóttir
Big Thanks to Brenda, Cheswatyr Foundation, Dana, Elaine, Ellen, Emily, Gabe & Jaz, Kennis, Leah, Naz, Susanna
Trevor Weston: Dig it with The Burglar, a film by Jerron Herman
Choreographed & Performed by Jerron Herman
Filmed & Edited by Daniel Kim
Art Direction by Mimi Kaneda
Music by Trevor Weston
Thanks to 110 (TM) Studios & Paulie C!
Julia Wolfe: Into the clouds with film by Andrea Miller
Choreographed by Andrea Miller
Directed by Andrea Miller and Ben Stamper
Cinematography and Editing by Ben Stamper
Performed by GALLIM artists, Marc Antony Gutierrez and Emma Thesing
Music by Julia Wolfe
Special thanks to Chelsea Factory for the use of their space
Michael Gordon: July (selections) for solo piano with film by Brian Brooks
Choreographed, danced, filmed and edited by Brian Brooks
Music by Michael Gordon
Painting on July 14 by Vicky Barranguet
Josue Collado Fregoso: Joie de Vivre with Marissa, a film by Pioneer Winter
Choreographed by Pioneer Winter
Directed by Pioneer Winter & Ronald Baez
Performed by Marissa Alma Nick
Cinematography by Kevin Berriz
Edited by McKenzie Mortensen
Production Design by David Hans Lau
Set Decoration by McKenzie Mortensen
Assistant Camera by Flor Portieri
Grip by McKenzie Mortensen
Music by Josue Collado Fregoso
Qasim Naqvi: Featureless with film by Kyle Marshall
Choreography, videography and editing by Kyle Marshall
Performed by Bree Breeden, Taína Lyons, Ariana Speight
Visual Direction and Make Up by Edo Tastic
Production assistant: Dial Winfield
Music by Qasim Naqvi
David Lang: interstate with film by Annie-B Parson
Choreographed by Annie-B Parson in collaboration with Jennie MaryTai Liu
Video by Jennie MaryTai Liu
Camera by Richie Fowler and Adam Ruszkowski
Performed by Jennie MaryTai Liu
Special appearances by Lavender, Orlando, and Andrew Gilbert
Costumes by Suzanne Bocanegra
Hong Kong Video Producer- Nelson Ng Chak-Hei
Music by David Lang
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Bang on a Can All-Stars (ensemble) Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a category-defying identity. With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group’s distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the group’s celebrated projects include their landmark recording of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Don Byron, Iva Bittova, Thurston Moore, and others. Current and recent project highlights include “In C,” a new dance collaboration with Sasha Waltz & Guests based on Terry Riley’s minimalist classic; Can Dance, a brand new multimedia concert pairing composers and choreographers, live music with dance on film; MEMORY GAME, a new record release and touring program featuring legendary composer-singer Meredith Monk; Julia wolfe’s Flower Power for Bang on a Can All-Stars and orchestra, a multimedia concert exploring the sonic landscape of the late 1960s; Road Trip, an immersive concert collaboratively composed by Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe to commemorate the 30+ year journey of Bang on a Can; performances and a recording of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning Anthracite Fields for the All-Stars and guest choir; Field Recordings, a major multi-media project featuring over 30 commissioned works by pioneering musicians from across all genres and borders; Cloud River Mountain, a collaboration featuring Chinese superstar singer Gong Linna; and more. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.
Robert Black (bass) Robert Black tours the world creating unheard of music for the double bass, collaborating with the most adventurous composers, musicians, dancers, artists, actors, and technophiles from all walks of life. He is a founding and current member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Current projects include First Fridays with Robert Black, a monthly series of streamed solo bass recitals; a 10-channel audio/video double bass installation reflecting on the Anthropocene with sound artists Brian House and Sue Huang, filmed at the Freshkills landfill in NYC; an outdoor environmental work for 24 basses with composer Eve Beglarian; and commissions from Carman Moore, Joan Tower, Nick Dunston, Žibuolkė Martinaitytė, Krists Auznieks, Jakhongir Shukurov, and Daniel Sabzghabaei. Solo recordings include Philip Glass, Bass Partita and Poetry (Orange Mountain Music), Possessed (Cantaloupe Records) Modern American Bass (New World Records), The Bass Music of Christian Wolff and Giacinto Scelsi (Mode Records), and State of the Bass (O.O. Discs).
Brian Brooks (choreographer), a Guggenheim Fellow, recently completed a Mellon Foundation Creative Artist Fellowship at the University of Washington, Seattle, and three years as the inaugural choreographer in Residence at Chicago's Harris Theater for Music and Dance. His New York City-based group, the Moving Company, has been presented by venues including Jacob’s Pillow, the American Dance Festival, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, and The Joyce Theater. His wide-ranging commissions have included companies such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Miami City Ballet, where he choreographed to an original score by Michael Gordon. Brooks has collaborated with NYC Ballet Associate Artistic Director and former principal dancer Wendy Whelan since 2012 and has choreographed several off-Broadway productions including A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013), directed by Julie Taymor, and Pericles (2016), directed by Trevor Nunn. In addition to his extensive teaching, Brooks has created dances for schools including The Juilliard School, Princeton University, Boston Conservatory, Rutgers University, and Ballet Tech. For 5 of his 12 years as a Teaching Artist at the Lincoln Center Institute, he served as the elected Chapter Leader of the TA Union, represented by the United Federation of Teachers. He was a founder and managing director of WAX from 1999-2004, an organization that provided services to over 750 emerging performing and visual artists through subsidized rental packages and hands-on production assistance at its flexible theater space and gallery in Brooklyn.
Andros Zins-Browne (choreographer) is an artist working at the intersection of performance and dance. His work extends choreographic notions to interact with dancers, non-dancers, singers, objects, and texts. Central to these pursuits is exploring the body as both material and immaterial, a site of exchange between embodied images and somatic experience. Already Unmade—an unmaking of his own choreographic archive—was shown at the ICA, London; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the RockbundArt Museum, Shanghai; and Fondation Galeries Lafayette, Paris. Over the past several years, he presented several remixes of existing works by other artists: Jérôme Bel, 1995 (commissioned by e-Flux and KADIST Foundation); See-Saw by choreographer Simone Forti (the Museum of Modern Art, New York); and The Tony Cokes Remixes (10th Berlin Biennial). In collaboration with artist Karthik Pandian, Zins-Browne created Atlas Unlimited, an ongoing series of exhibitions weaving together stories of migratory movement, destruction, and re-construction through sculpture and vocal performance (most recently featured at the PERFORMA19 Performance Biennial, New York). &&&&, a dance about feedback systems, commissioned by Les Subsistances in Lyon and created to music performed by two pianists, composed by David Lang. In the last two years, his work was commissioned by Danspace Project, The Hammer Museum and Triple Canopy. He is the recipient of grants and awards from the Goethe Institute, the Flemish Cultural Ministry, NYSCA, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Rena Butler (choreographer) Originally from Chicago, IL, Rena Butler has previously performed with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, AIM by Kyle Abraham, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, Manuel Vignoulle/M-Motions, Kevin Wynn Collection, Pasos Con Sabor Salsa Dance Company, and Gibney Company – as a dance artist and was also their inaugural Choreographic Associate. She is a recipient of the 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Award for Choreography. She has created works for various companies and institutions, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, BalletX, Charlotte Ballet, Whim W’him, Boston Dance Theater, TedXChicago Virtual Salon 3.0: Design Your Life, The Juilliard School, Gibney Company, and more. She currently serves on the Artistic Advisory Council for Dancewave NYC and was the featured cover story for Dance Magazine’s November 2021 issue.
Vicky Chow (piano) Hong Kong/Canadian pianist Vicky Chow (she/her) has been described as “brilliant” (New York Times) and “one of our era’s most brilliant pianists” (Pitchfork). Since joining the Bang on a Can All-Stars in 2009, she has collaborated and worked with artists/ensembles such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, The Knights, Tyshawn Sorey, Andy Akiho, John Zorn, Steve Reich, Wet Ink Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, Momenta Quartet, to name a few. About her recording of Michael Gordon’s Sonatra,The New Yorker wrote, “Sonatra is a milestone of composition, and Vicky Chow’s recording of it is a milestone of pianism.” Her album Tristan Perich: Surface Image released in 2013 on New Amsterdam Records was among the top 10 Avant Music albums in Rolling Stone. In 2022, she will be releasing three new solo albums (Philip Glass: Piano Etudes Book 1 in celebration of his 85th Birthday in 2022, Jane Antonia Cornish: Sierra, and Michael Gordon: July) on the Cantaloupe Label and her other recordings can be found on the Nonesuch, New Amsterdam, Tzadik, among others. During the pandemic, she worked with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company on a new production “Afterwardsness” which premiered at the Park Avenue Armory October 2020 and toured Massachusetts and Minneapolis in Fall 2021. Upcoming performances in Spring 2022 include premieres of a new concerto by Krists Auznieks in Latvia, Tristan Perich: Surface Image in Paris, as well album release concerts at Roulette in Brooklyn. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, she is based in Brooklyn, NY. She serves as faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute and has been on faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She is on the Board of Advisors for Composers Now, and is also a mentor at The Juilliard School. A graduate of The Juilliard School (B.M. ’05, M.M ’07 Piano Performance) and The Manhattan School of Music (M.M. Contemporary Performance ’09), Ms. Chow is a Yamaha Artist. vickychow.com
David Cossin (percussion) David Cossin was born and raised in Queens, NY, and studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. His interest in classical percussion, drum set, non-western hand drumming, composition, and improvisation has led to performances across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms. David has recorded and performed internationally with Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio Real Quiet, as well as with Sting on his Symphonicity world tour. Theater work includes Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and projects with the director Peter Sellars. David was featured as the solo percussionist in Tan Dun’s award-winning score to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France, and more. His sonic installations have been presented in New York, Italy and Germany, and he is also an active producer, composer, and instrument inventor, expanding the limits of traditional percussion. David teaches percussion at the Aaron Copland School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program.
Andrew Cotton (sound engineer) In his role as tour manager and engineer, Andrew Cotton works closely with both composers and musicians in creating new works. Cotton works closely with several major producers, specializing in contemporary music projects with artists and concert series as diverse as Elvis Costello and John Harle, the BBC Promenade Series, Meltdown, George Russell, Carla Bley, Talvin Singh, Cold Cut, KT Tunstall, Elvis Costello, John Harle, Andy Sheppard, Carla Bley, Angelique Kidjo, Manu Dibango, District Six, Iva Bittova, Philip Glass, Steve Reich among others. He regularly collaborates with composers Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe and David Lang on their pieces for the All-Stars as well as large ensemble, dance and theatre pieces. He also act as technical manager and sound collaborator with percussionist Evelyn Glennie DBE. As a sound designer he has designed The Carbon Copy Building –Turin, New York, Hamburg and Liverpool; Chaos – New York; The New Yorkers – Brooklyn Academy of Music; Ballet Tech –Joyce Theatre NY 1997-1999, Bang on a Can Marathons 1997 – 2016, Hearing Voices – Jocelyn Pook 2016 and 2017, Piano Circus 2015-present , Steel Hammer 2015-present, BBC Scotland Hogmanay 2015-present, riSE and fLY 2015, Road Trip 2017, 2017-18 among others.
Josué Collado Fregoso (composer), born and raised in Mexico City, is a composer and guitarist as much involved in contemporary music as in the rock/electronic music scene. His music takes elements from Mexican folk music, classical-concert music and popular music. He writes music for string quartet, orchestra, varied chamber ensembles, and soloists, as well as electroacoustic music and songs for rock bands. Josué Collado received his Master of Music diploma by the New York University where he studied with Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe. During his stay at NYU, he was selected as composer in residence of the NYU Symphony Orchestra for the 2012-13 season. The piece Millones marchamos contra el Tirano (We are Millions marching against the Tyrant) was premiered at the conclusion of the residence. Collado was awarded the 2015 Jovenes Creadores Fellowship to develop a yearlong project based on the Mexico City-spanish accents.
Michael Gordon (composer) is known for his monumental and immersive works. Decasia, for 55 retuned spatially positioned instruments (with Bill Morrison’s accompanying cult-classic film) has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Minimalist Jukebox Festival and at the Southbank Centre. Timber, a tour-de-force for percussion sextet played on amplified microtonal simantras has been performed on every continent, including by Slagwerk Den Haag at the Musikgebouw and Mantra Percussion at BAM. Natural History, a collaboration with the Steiger Butte Drum of the Klamath tribe, was premiered by the Britt Festival Orchestra and Chorus on the rim of Crater Lake (Oregon) by conductor Teddy Abrams and is the subject of the PBS documentary Symphony for Nature. Gordon’s vocal works include Anonymous Man, an autobiographical choral work for The Crossing; the opera What to wear with the legendary director Richard Foreman; and the film-opera Acquanetta with director Daniel Fish. Recent recordings include Clouded Yellow, Gordon’s complete string quartets performed by the Kronos Quartet.
Hildur Guðnadóttir (composer) Emmy-Award winning Hildur Guðnadóttir is an Icelandic composer, cello player, and singer who has been manifesting herself at the forefront of experimental pop and contemporary music. In her solo works she draws out a broad spectrum of sounds from her instrument, ranging from intimate simplicity to huge soundscapes. Her work for Film and Television includes “Sicario: Day of the Soldado”, “Mary Magdalene”, “Joker”, starring Joaquin Phoenix for which she received a Golden Globe Nomination, and the critically acclaimed HBO series “Chernobyl”, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie or Special category alongside a Grammy Nomination. Hildur has released four critically acclaimed solo albums: Mount A (2006), Without Sinking (2009), Leyfðu Ljósinu (2012) and Saman (2014). She has also composed music for theatre, dance performances and films. The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Icelandic National Theatre, Tate Modern, The British Film Institute, The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm and Gothenburg National Theatre are amongst the institutions that have commissioned new works by Hildur. She was nominated for the Nordic Music Council Prize as composer of the year 2014.
Jerron Herman (choreographer) is a disabled dancer and writer who creates works to facilitate welcoming. He has premiered pieces at Danspace Project, Performance Space New York, The Kennedy Center, and The Whitney Museum. Jerron’s most recent work VITRUVIAN premiered live at Abrons Arts Center in May with a digital release in July. He curated the speaking series Access Check 2.0: Mapping Accessibility for the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation from 2019-2020 and Discourse: Disabled Artists at The Joyce for The Joyce Theater in 2021. Jerron has also served on the Board of Trustees at Dance/USA since 2017, most recently as Vice Chair. His writings on arts and culture have been published in the US and internationally and most recently his play, 3 Bodies, was published in Theater Magazine’s May/June 2022 issue. During the Spring 2022 semester Jerron was also the Artist/Scholar in Residence at Georgetown University, facilitating student engagement with Art and Disability. As a model and advocate, Jerron has worked with Chromat, Tommy Hilfiger, Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and Nike. Other accolades include a 2021 Grants to Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and a 2021-2022 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in Dance from the Jerome Foundation. The 2021 PETRONIO Award and residency as well as a 2020 Disability Futures Fellowship by the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Jerronherman.com
Arlen Hlusko (cello) Hailed for her “sublime cello prowess” (Take Effect), “absorbing originality” (Gramophone), and “mesmerizing beauty” (NY Music Daily), internationally acclaimed Canadian cellist Arlen Hlusko is a dynamic, versatile young artist who has performed extensively as soloist and chamber musician across North America, Asia, and Europe. Newly appointed cellist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Arlen is also a laureate of numerous competitions, Grammy-award winner for her collaboration with The Crossing, and recent alumna of the Curtis Institute of Music and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. In addition to the All-Stars, Arlen regularly performs with several ensembles based on the East Coast, including Dolce Suono Ensemble, Intersection, and Frisson, and was recently featured on CBC’s “30 under 30”. She has been a featured performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, among others. Arlen has also performed at several preeminent summer festivals, including Spoleto USA Bank of America Chamber Music, Music from Angel Fire, Tippet Rise, and Bay Chamber Concerts. As a teacher, she has served on faculty of Curtis Summerfest, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra Teaching Artists, and given masterclasses in USA, Canada, France, and Germany. Committed to using her music to connect with and serve her community, Arlen founded her own interactive chamber music concert series, Philadelphia Performances for Autism, and is involved with several communities in Philadelphia & NYC, including Carnegie Hall’s “Musical Connections” at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
Keerati Jinakunwiphat (choreographer), originally from Chicago, IL., received her BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase and was a recipient of the Adopt-A- Dancer Scholarship. She has additionally studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Springboard Danse Montreal. She has worked with and performed works of artists such as Kyle Abraham, Nicole von Arx, Trisha Brown, Jasmine Ellis, Hannah Garner, Shannon Gillen, Andrea Miller, Kevin Wynn, and Doug Varone. Keerati began working with A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham in 2016. She has additionally assisted Kyle Abraham in new commissioned work for New York City Ballet and Paul Taylor Dance Company. As a freelance choreographer, Keerati has presented her own choreographic works at the American Dance Guild Festival, Triskelion Arts, Dixon Place, Battery Dance Festival, Dance Gallery Festival, the Joyce Theater, New Victory Theater, and New York City Ballet. She has been commissioned to set and create works on the Evanston Dance Ensemble, the Martha Graham School, SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, New England Ballet Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Bang On A Can, Princeton University, PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, and the New York Choreographic Institute. Keerati has graced the cover of Dance Magazine featured as part of ‘25 to Watch’ for 2021.
David Lang (composer) is one of the most highly esteemed and performed American composers writing today. His works have been performed around the world in most of the great concert halls. Lang’s simple song #3, written as part of his score for Paolo Sorrentino’s acclaimed film YOUTH, received many awards nominations in 2016, including the Academy Award and Golden Globe. His opera prisoner of the state (with libretto by Lang) was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam’s de Doelen Concert Hall, London’s Barbican Centre, Barcelona’s l’Auditori, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, and Bruges’s Concertgebouw, and premiered June 2019 in New York, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. prisoner of the state received its UK premiere in January 2020 with the BBC Symphony, European premieres are rescheduled for 2022-2023. New works for 2021-2022 include sun-centered for the Tallis Scholars — to be interwoven with Antoine Brumel’s monumental Renaissance mass for 12 voices Missa Et ecce terræ motus (“and the Earth moved”); a new evening-length work for Pam Tanowitz Dance, created as part of the dance work Song of Songs; and an evening-length work for the chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird, composition as explanation. Lang is a Professor of Music Composition at the Yale School of Music and is Artist in Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can. His music is published by Red Poppy Music and G. Ricordi & Co., New York (ASCAP) and is is distributed worldwide by the Universal Music Publishing Group.
Jennie MaryTai Liu (collaborator/Annie B Parson) is an artist working across performance, video, writing, and education. She has recently received commissions and presentations from Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, New York Film Festival/Currents section, Crossroads/San Francisco Cinematheque, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Human Resources LA, The Mistake Room, Bushwick Starr, HERE Arts Center, Dance Theater Workshop, and Incubator Arts Center. She has been a resident artist at Headlands Center for the Arts, Bogliasco Foundation, Yaddo Arts Colony, EMPAC, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant, MAP Fund, Jerome Foundation, and Center for Cultural Innovation. She co-founded and edited Riting.org, an experiment in writing that engages with performance being made now in LA. Funded by the Mike Kelley Foundation and in collaboration with The Box and Pieter Performance Space, she curated Knees, Schools, Urges – an exhibition and performance program engaging ten LA based artists to respond to histories of 20th century modern dance and embedded embodied histories. Jennie frequently collaborates as a performer in the work of Big Dance Theater, Adam Linder, and Poor Dog Group. Since 2021 she is based between Los Angeles and Hong Kong where she runs Center for Artists in the Making, an art education program engaging young people in methods and practices from multidisciplinary art making towards the development of their own work and platforms.
Kyle Marshall (choreographer) is a choreographer, performer, teacher and artistic director of Kyle Marshall Choreography (KMC), a dance company that sees the dancing body as a container of history, an igniter of social reform and a site of celebration. Since inception in 2014, KMC has performed at venues including: Chelsea Factory, BAM Next Wave Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Actors Fund Arts Center, NJPAC, Little Island, and Roulette. Kyle has received choreographic and dance film commissions from the Baryshnikov Arts Center, “Dance on the Lawn”, Montclair’s Dance Festival, Harlem Stage and THE SHED. Kyle is a recipient of a 2020 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Award and 2018 NYJuried “Bessie” Award. As a teacher, Kyle has conducted masterclasses, creative workshops, set choreography at schools including; ADF, Rutgers University, Ailey/Fordham University, Sarah Lawerence College, County Prep High School, and Bloomfield College. He is currently a Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence at Princeton University and is in residence at the Center for Ballet and Arts at NYU. Additional residencies for KMC include MANA Contemporary, 92nd st Y, CPR, and Jamaica Performing Arts Center. Kyle dances with the Trisha Brown Dance Company and has also worked with doug elkins choreography etc and Tiffany Mills. Kyle graduated from Rutgers University with a BFA in Dance and resides in Jersey City.
Andrea Miller (choreographer) is a choreographer, creative director and founder of the internationally renowned multidisciplinary organization GALLIM, working in live and digital movement expression and education. Miller’s works for theater, film, fashion, and dance have been described as “as ancient as they are ultra modern.” A Guggenheim, Sadler’s Wells, and Princess Grace Fellow, Miller is the first-ever choreographer to be named Artist in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in 2017 she was featured in Forbes magazine for entrepreneurial leadership in the arts. Miller is currently working deeply in film and site-specific work, and recently conceived of You Are Here, a sound, sculpture, and performance installation for Lincoln Center with 25 community members processing the pandemic through breath, music, theater and dance. Her films and dance works have been screened/performed worldwide at venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Art Basel, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, The Joyce, Jacob’s Pillow, BAM, Royal Albert Hall, Sadlers Wells, Chaillot de Paris, Teatro Nacional de Panama, and more. Additional recent commissions include New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Pennsylvania Ballet, Rambert2, Ailey II, and The Juilliard School. Miller is an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College and guest faculty at The Juilliard School. Her repertory, creative methodology, and dance training are taught across the country.
Qasim Naqvi (composer) is perhaps best known as one of the founding members of the group Dawn of Midi. Outside of D.O.M he works on a variety of projects as a drummer, composer and electronic musician. His work has been commissioned / performed by The BBC Concert Orchestra, Jennifer Koh, Stargaze, The London Contemporary Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Helsinki Chamber Choir and others. He trained under such artists as Reggie Workman, Rashied Ali, Morton Subotnick, Charlie Haden, James Tenney and Wolfgang von Schweinitz. Qasim’s music for analog and modular synthesizer systems can be heard on New Amsterdam and Erased Tapes Records. www.qasim-naqvi.com
Angélica Negrón (composer) Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”. Her music has been performed at the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Ecstatic Music Festival and the 2016 New York Philharmonic Biennial and she has collaborated with artists like Sō Percussion, loadbang, the Albany Symphony, Face the Music, A Far Cry, and American Composers Orchestra, among others. Angélica is currently a doctoral candidate at The Graduate Center (CUNY), where she studies composition with Tania León and focuses on the work of Meredith Monk for her dissertation. She’s a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program and Lincoln Center Education working with learners of all ages on creative composition projects. Angélica is currently working on a lip synch opera titled Chimera for drag queen performers and chamber ensemble exploring the ideas of fantasy and illusion as well as the intricacies and complexities of identity.
Annie-B Parson (choreographer) is a choreographer and artistic director of the Obie award-winning Big Dance Theater. She co-founded Big Dance in 1991 with Molly Hickok, and with her company has created over twenty large-scale works for such venues as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Japan Society, the Old Vic/London, Saddler’s Wells/London, The Walker, The National Theater in Paris, Japan Society and The Kitchen. Outside of her company, Parson has also made choreography for rock shows, marching bands, movies, museums, objects, television, augmented reality, opera, ballet, theater, symphony orchestras, string quartets, and a chorus of 1,000 amateur singers. Some of the artists she has worked with include David Byrne, David Bowie, Lorde, St. Vincent, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Wendy Whelan, Anne Carson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Laurie Anderson, Salt n Pepa, Jonathan Demme, and Spike Lee. Parson has two large scale works in the repertory of the Martha Graham Dance Company. Her work with David Byrne has spanned over ten years and includes dance making for his tours with Brian Eno and St. Vincent. Their most recent work, American Utopia, toured the world and was a smash hit on Broadway, and subsequently became a film by Spike Lee. Parson has published two books on choreography as well as many articles on dance. She teaches and lectures on the body in space, dance making and the virtuosity of structures in art making. Among other awards, Parson has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, Bessie Awards, The Jacobs Pillow Dance Award, a USA Artist Award, The Doris Duke Award, a special Chita Rivera award, and an Olivier nomination. In October 2022 she has a book coming out, The Choreography of Everyday Life with Verso Press. Additionally, with Thomas F. DeFrantz, she is co-editing a book Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study.
Ben Stamper (filmmaker/Andrea Miller) is an award-winning filmmaker and artist based in the northeastern United States. His work spans narrative, documentary and contemplative genres with a particular interest in the patterns of nature and human movement. With a background in fine art and music, Ben’s intuitive approach to imagery and sound has led him to a broad range of human interests around the world. In recent years, Ben has been commissioned to create numerous short films, video installations and projections by The Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process Arts Series, MetLiveArts, The Armstrong Museum House and Archives, Utah State University, Grace Farms and Center for Faith & Work. Ben is also a Lincoln City Fellow and has been the artist-in-residence at Center for Faith & Work and Grace Farms Foundation. He has received numerous awards for his documentary work about survivors of sex-trafficking in India and Africa, as well as his films about young people on the autism spectrum. Ben also works in close collaboration with cinematographer Andrew Ellis under the name Helix Films. Together, they explore the relationship between dance and film. Their works have featured Justin Peck, Meredith Monk, the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Company, Andrea Miller and Gallim Dance, Sonya Tayeh, New Chamber Ballet, Bill T. Jones, Ernest Felton Baker, and Matthew Rushing of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Mark Stewart (guitar) Multi-instrumentalist, singer, song leader, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. Since 1998, he has recorded and toured as guitarist and Musical Director with Paul Simon. Mark is a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the duo Polygraph Lounge with keyboard & theremin wizard Rob Schwimmer. He has also worked with Steve Reich, Sting, Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis, Meredith Monk, Stevie Wonder, Phillip Glass, Iva Bittova, Bruce Springsteen, Terry Riley, Ornette Coleman, Don Byron, Joan Baez, Hugh Masakela, Paul McCartney, Cecil Taylor, Bill Frisell, Jimmy Cliff, Charles Wourinen, the Everly Brothers, Steve Gadd, Fred Frith, Alison Krauss, David Krakauer, Bobby McFerrin, David Byrne, James Taylor, The Roches, Aaron Neville, Bette Midler, and Marc Ribot. He is the inventor of the WhirlyCopter, a bicycle-powered Pythagorean choir of singing tubes and the Big Boing, a 24 ft long sonic banquet table Mbira that seats 30 children playing 490 found objects and is a Visiting Lecturer in musical instrument design at MIT. Mark is also a curator at MASS MoCA of the immersive Gunnar Schonbeck exhibit of musical instruments and co-founder of soundstewArt, a company that designs instruments, immersive sound environments & community music making experiences. He lives in Brooklyn, NY & North Adams, MA, playing, singing & writing popular music, semi-popular music and unpopular music, whilst designing instruments that everyone can play.
Jeff Sugg (projection and lighting design) is a Tony Award–nominated designer and theater maker with more than 25 years of experience in the performing arts. Mr. Sugg has designed for a wide range of productions from Broadway to regional theater to international concert halls. In addition to Julia Wolfe, he has been a principal collaborator with music and theater artists that include The Wooster Group, Cynthia Hopkins, Jim Findlay, and Mikel Rouse. Select Broadway theater credits include Mr. Saturday Night, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (also West End), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (also touring), Sweat, Bring It On, and 33 Variations. His off-Broadway and regional credits include Second Stage, The Public Theater, St. Ann’s Warehouse, BAM, Lincoln Center, Steppenwolf Theatre, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, and dozens more. His work with music productions has included Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth, Flower Power, and her Pulitzer Prize–winning Anthracite Fields; a new symphonic adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Prince’s final appearance on Saturday Night Live. Mr. Sugg is the recipient of Lucille Lortel, Obie, Bessie, and Henry Hewes Design awards.
Ken Thomson (clarinet and bass clarinet) is widely regarded for his ability to blend a rich variety of influences and styles into his own musical language while maintaining a voice unmistakably his own. He has a growing catalog of music written for ensembles of differing sizes, and has toured with and released a number of albums with groups that he has created. His bands “Sextet,” and, before that, “Slow/Fast,” combine the sounds of jazz and contemporary music in through-composed small-group settings; with them, he has released multiple acclaimed recordings and toured across the US and Europe. Two recordings of his chamber music are also available – “Restless” with Karl Larson and Ashley Bathgate, and “Thaw” with JACK Quartet. With the newly-formed Anzû Quartet, he has recorded his own work as well as Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, for release in 2022. He is also active as a freelance clarinetist and saxophonist, performing with Ensemble Signal, International Contemporary Ensemble, Novus, and more. He is on faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute; he endorses D’Addario Woodwinds reeds, F. Arthur Uebel clarinets and Yanagisawa saxophones (Conn-Selmer). Ken currently splits his time between Brooklyn and Berlin. www.ktonline.net.
Henry Threadgill (composer) Only three jazz artists have won a Pulitzer Prize. In spring 2016, Henry Threadgill joined Ornette Coleman and Wynton Marsalis as Pulitzer laureates, when he was honored for In For A Penny, In For A Pound, the latest album by Zooid, his unconventional sextet (reeds, acoustic guitar, cello, tuba, bass guitar, drums). Born in Chicago in 1944, Henry grew up on the South Side, where parade bands and the blues filled the air. He played percussion, then clarinet, and switched to sax at 16. An openness to ideas and experiences has always been vital to who Threadgill is and how his music works. As Charlie Parker put it, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” As a composer and improviser, Henry sees artistic process and product as inseparable, the essence of jazz. Additional awards include: 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award; 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award; 2008 United States Artist Fellowship; 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship. He is especially proud of being the first black non-classical musician to get a Copland House Residency Award. In July 2016, the annual Leadership Conference of the Vietnam Veterans of America honored him with their Excellence in the Arts award—a very special moment for the only Vietnam veteran ever awarded a Pulitzer for music.
Trevor Weston (composer) Trevor Weston’s music has been called a “gently syncopated marriage of intellect and feeling.” (Detroit Free Press) Weston’s honors include; the George Ladd Prix de Paris from the University of California, Berkeley, a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and the Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a fellow from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the MacDowell Colony. Weston co-authored with Olly Wilson, “Duke Ellington as a Cultural Icon” in the Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington, published by Cambridge University Press. Carnegie Hall co-commissioned Weston’s Flying Fish, with the American Composers Orchestra, for its 125 Commissions Project. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered Weston’s Dig It, for the Ecstatic Music Festival in NYC in 2019. The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street, under the direction of Julian Wachner, recorded a CD of Trevor Weston’s choral works. Weston’s work Juba for Strings won the 2019 Sonori/New Orleans Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition. Dr. Weston is currently Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Drew University in Madison, NJ.
Pioneer Winter (choregrapher) is a Miami-based choreographer and artistic director of Pioneer Winter Collective, an intergenerational and physically integrated dance-theater company, rooted in social practice and community, queer visibility and beauty beyond the mainstream. Recognized in Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch, Pioneer Winter’s work democratizes performance in public spaces, museums and galleries, stage, and film. A major objective continues to be expanding the definition of all that dance is and can be so that all bodies survive, thrive, and are witnessed in spite of constant erasure based upon race, body type, age, and ability – this goes for both the artists as well as the audience. Pioneer has been commissioned by Miami Theater Center, Karen Peterson and Dancers, Tigertail Productions, Jacksonville Dance Theatre, FundArte, and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, where Pioneer is the Center’s first Artist-in-Resident collaboration in a decade. Pioneer has been a guest artist at universities, including Miami Dade College, Nova Southeastern University, Broward College, and Florida State College.An extension of his creative practice, Pioneer has curated and directed ScreenDance Miami Festival since 2017, presented by Miami Light Project; Pioneer’s own films screen internationally. Pioneer serves as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Honors College and College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University. Pioneer is affiliated faculty at the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment (CHUE) and an inaugural Fellow in the Miami Studies Program.
Julia Wolfe (Composer) Julia Wolfe’s music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. She draws inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, bringing a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them. The 2019 world premiere of Fire in my mouth, a large-scale work for orchestra and women’s chorus, by the New York Philharmonic with The Crossing and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, received extensive acclaim — one reviewer called the work “a monumental achievement in high musical drama, among the most commandingly imaginative and emotively potent works of any kind that I’ve ever experienced.” (The Nation Magazine) The work is the third in a series of compositions about the American worker: 2009’s Steel Hammer examines the folk-hero John Henry, and the 2015 Pulitzer prize-winning work, Anthracite Fields, a concert-length oratorio for chorus and instruments, draws on oral histories, interviews, speeches, and more to honor the people who persevered and endured in the Pennsylvania Anthracite coal region. Mark Swed of the LA Times wrote, Anthracite Fields “captures not only the sadness of hard lives lost…but also of the sweetness and passion of a way of daily life now also lost. The music compels without overstatement. This is a major, profound work.” In addition to receiving the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Wolfe was a 2016 MacArthur Fellow. She received the 2015 Herb Alpert Award in Music, and was named Musical America’s 2019 Composer of the Year. Julia Wolfe is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can, and she is Artistic Director of NYU Steinhardt Music Composition. Her music is published by Red Poppy Music and G. Ricordi & Co., New York (ASCAP) and is is distributed worldwide by the Universal Music Publishing Group.
About Bang on a Can
Founded in 1987 by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found, and has grown from a one-day New York-based Marathon concert to a multi-faceted performing arts organization with a broad range of year-round international activities. In addition to its festivals LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA and LONG PLAY, current projects include live.bangonacan.org, a digital streaming platform launched during the pandemic with an ongoing schedule of live streamed concerts and world premiere performances of new commissions; The People’s Commissioning Fund, a membership program to commission emerging composers; the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who tour to major festivals and concert venues around the world every year; recording projects; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a professional development program for young composers and performers led by today’s pioneers of experimental music; Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can’s extreme street band that offers mobile performances re-contextualizing unusual music; Found Sound Nation, a new technology-based musical outreach program now partnering with the State Department of the United States of America to create OneBeat, a revolutionary, post-political residency program that uses music to bridge the gulf between young American musicians and young musicians from developing countries; cross-disciplinary collaborations and projects with DJs, visual artists, choreographers, filmmakers and more. Each new program has evolved to answer specific challenges faced by today’s musicians, composers and audiences, in order to make innovative music widely accessible and wildly received. Bang on a Can’s inventive and aggressive approach to programming and presentation has created a large and vibrant international audience made up of people of all ages who are rediscovering the value of contemporary music. Bang on a Can has also recently launched its new digital archive, CANLAND, an extensive archive of its recordings, videos, posters, program books, and more. Thirty-three years of collected music and associated ephemera have been digitized and archived online and is publicly accessible in its entirety at www.canland.org. Bang on a Can has created a large and vibrant international audience made up of people of all ages who are rediscovering the value of contemporary music.
More info at: www.bangonacan.org
Bang on a Can Board of Directors
Betto Arcos, Daniel Baldini, Jeffrey Bishop, Jeffrey Calman, Michael Gordon, Lynette Jaffe, Alan Kifferstein, Michael Kushner, David Lang, Lesley Lassiter, George Lewis, Raulee Marcus, Elizabeth Murrell, Robert A. Skirnick, Jane Stewart, Sandra Tait, Julia Wolfe, Adam Wolfensohn.
Bang on a Can Staff
Michael Gordon – Artistic Director
David Lang – Artistic Director
Julia Wolfe – Artistic Director
Kenny Savelson – Executive Director
Tim Thomas – Development Director
Philippa Thompson – Project Manager and Summer Festival Manager
Sruly Lazaros – Producer
Brian Petuch – Accounts Manager
Adam Cuthbert – Licensing & Store Manager
Phong Tran – Marketing Associate
Bang on a Can’s 2022 programs are made possible with generous lead support from: Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Amphion Foundation, ASCAP and ASCAP Foundation, Atlantic Records, Daniel Baldini, Stephen A. Block, Bishop Fund, Jeffrey Calman, Charina Endowment Fund, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Valerie Dillon and Daniel Lewis, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jaffe Family Foundation, Alan Kifferstein & Joan Finkelstein, Michael Kushner, Leslie Lassiter, Herb Leventer, MAP Fund, Raulee Marcus, MASS MoCA, Henry S. McNeil, Jr., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Jeremy Mindich & Amy Smith, Elizabeth Murrell & Gary Haney, National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, New York Community Trust, New York State Council on the Arts (with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature), O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, Justus & Elizabeth Schlichting, Scopia Capital Management, Matthew Sirovich & Meredith Elson, Maria & Robert A. Skirnick, Jane & Dick Stewart, Sandra Tait and Hal Foster, David Tochen & Mary Beth Schiffman, The Family of Cece Wasserman, Williamson Foundation for Music, Adam Wolfensohn & Jennifer Small, and Wolfensohn Family Foundation.