Bang on a Can All-Stars and Nashville Symphony perform Julia Wolfe’s Flower Power! Conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero.
3 performances: January 24-26. With visuals by Jeff Sugg.
Julia Wolfe describes Flower Power, inspired by the 1960s counterculture movement, as “about optimism, idealism, psychedelia, breaking with convention, and a little bit of love and peace.”
Program also includes Beethoven’s Seventh.
World Premiere performance of David Lang’s before and after nature with video design by Tal Rosner!
Performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the LA Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon.
“before and after nature is a meditation on the natural world, both before human existence and after humans are gone.”
Embodying “undivided devotion to the musical material,” the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices is a go-to collaborator for many of today’s most visionary composers. In this performance—in the intimate, in-the-round Zankel Hall Center Stage configuration—they sing a world premiere by the category-defying Julia Wolfe, a US premiere by John Luther Adams that takes listeners on a journey through the geological layers of the Grand Canyon, and a recent work by Michael Gordon that combines playfully direct lyrics with sumptuously scored singing.
Inspired by her love for the music and lore of Appalachia, Julia Wolfe based her text for Steel Hammer (called a “wild hybrid” by the New York Times) on over 200 versions of the “John Henry” ballad, which has been recorded by everyone from Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen. A runner-up for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, Steel Hammer features the alternately haunting and whimsical vocalizations of Norway’s renowned Trio Mediaeval, and stretches the standard instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars with wooden bones, mountain dulcimer, banjo, clapping, clogging and more.en.
Inspired by her love for the music and lore of Appalachia, Julia Wolfe based her text for Steel Hammer (called a “wild hybrid” by the New York Times) on over 200 versions of the “John Henry” ballad, which has been recorded by everyone from Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen. A runner-up for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, Steel Hammer features the alternately haunting and whimsical vocalizations of Norway’s renowned Trio Mediaeval, and stretches the standard instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars with wooden bones, mountain dulcimer, banjo, clapping, clogging and more.
Inspired by her love for the music and lore of Appalachia, Julia Wolfe based her text for Steel Hammer (called a “wild hybrid” by the New York Times) on over 200 versions of the “John Henry” ballad, which has been recorded by everyone from Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen. A runner-up for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, Steel Hammer features the alternately haunting and whimsical vocalizations of Norway’s renowned Trio Mediaeval, and stretches the standard instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars with wooden bones, mountain dulcimer, banjo, clapping, clogging and more.
Women artists take center stage in these concerts! Pianist Hélène Grimaud brings “astonishing proficiency and poetic sensibilities” (The Washington Post) to Brahms’s First Piano Concerto; 19th-century composer Louise Farrenc’s surging, Romantic First Symphony beguiles with mystery and melody; and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Julia Wolfe’s Pretty is a raucous, rhythmic romp.
Written for Lorelei Ensemble, Her Story invokes the words of historical figures and the spirit of pivotal moments to pay tribute to the centuries of ongoing struggle for equal rights, representation, and access to democracy for women in America.
David Lang’s before and after nature
Video and visual design by Tal Rosner
Performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars
With Penn State Concert Choir under the direction of Dr. Christopher Kiver
David Lang’s before and after nature is a meditation on the natural world, both before human existence and after humans are gone.
A Supercharged Musical Ride through Right Now
50+ concerts throughout Brooklyn, New York
Celebrate Terry Riley’s 90th with a tribute featuring Pete Townshend, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and special guests.
–Pete Townshend performs the original ‘free fall solo version’ of his iconic Baba O’Riley.
–The Bang on a Can All-Stars present a stunning new arrangement of Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air.
–Riley’s masterpiece In C, brought to life by an all-star cast of musicians.
Composer Michael Gordon has been a staple of New York City’s avant-garde music scene since the 1980s. For this Met commission, he presents a spatialized, site-specific work for 20 percussionists playing a wide array of instruments. Join us to see The Met Cloisters transformed like never before—both indoors and outdoors—with choreography and direction by Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar.
PLEASE NOTE: This performance will include both indoor and outdoor components. Seating may be limited, and appropriate footwear is recommended.
Ryuichi Sakamoto “was arguably the best-known and most successful Japanese musician in the world.” (Peter Tasker, Nikkei Asia) Now Bang on a Can All-Stars offer their realization of the album 1996 (arranged by the All-Stars’ multi-talented clarinetist-composer Ken Thomson) — which includes an incredible selection of many of Sakamoto’s greatest hits.
Ryuichi Sakamoto “was arguably the best-known and most successful Japanese musician in the world.” (Peter Tasker, Nikkei Asia) Now Bang on a Can All-Stars offer their realization of the album 1996 (arranged by the All-Stars’ multi-talented clarinetist-composer Ken Thomson) — which includes an incredible selection of many of Sakamoto’s greatest hits.
In 1964, Terry Riley kicked off a revolution with his landmark piece, “In C,” inspiring such young composers as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Now, Bang on a Can reinterprets this minimalist classic with an explosive combination of instruments from around the globe, propelling this transcendental ’60’s masterpiece into the future.
LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA is a fully loaded, three-day, eclectic super-mix of creative, experimental and unusual music taking place throughout the museum’s vast galleries and its stunning collection of indoor and outdoor performing arts venues.
