Bang on a Can continues our series at the Jewish Museum with the Mivos Quartet performing the string quartets of Steve Reich. Reich is one of New York’s and the world’s most influential composers and his quartets are arguably the most important cycle of quartets since Béla Bartók. This concert includes his Holocaust-related masterpiece Different Trains, and the intensely contrapuntal Triple Quartet, plus the complex and emotional WTC 9/11

The performance corresponds to the Museum’s exhibition Unorthodox

The annual People’s Commissioning Fund Concert, with four world premieres by René Lussier, Caroline Shaw, Gabriella Smith and Zhang Shouwang. The PCF performance is part of the Ecstatic Music Festival.

René has a hilarious ueber-Canadian take on his commission:

Program order subject to change:

Gabriella Smith: Panitao
Zhang Shouwang: Courtyards in Central Beijing
Caroline Shaw: Really Craft When You
René Lussier: Nocturne

-intermission-

Julia Wolfe: Breaker Boys (from Anthracite Fields)
  with the Choir of Trinity Wall St
Julia Wolfe: Reeling (from Field Recordings)
Ornette Coleman: Haven’t Been Where I Left

More info on the program.

Tickets.

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Program:

Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink (from Field Recordings)   
Julia Wolfe: Believing 
David Lang: Heroin (text by Lou Reed)
Brendon Randall-Myers: changes stops and swells (for b) – (world premiere!)
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction
Philip Glass: Closing

More info

Seating limited! Call ahead to the Tang Museum at (518) 580-8080.

In 1978, Brian Eno released his first album of ambient music, Music for Airports. Consisting of four compositions made by layering tape loops, the album marked the invention of a new musical genre. New York’s Bang on a Can All-Stars pays tribute to this musical milestone with a carefully constructed reproduction of Eno’s album that replaces tape loops with piano, clarinet, bass, guitar, percussion, and voices. The Village Voice says the result is “beautiful, and best enjoyed while lying flat on your back and staring straight up, through the palm trees and the sunroof to the deep night outside . . . as breathy keyboards slowly give way to meandering clarinet.”

Two performances: 7pm and 9:30pm

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform at the Hartt School, University of Hartford.

Program:

Tan Dun: Concerto for Six
Julia Wolfe: Believing
Kate Moore: The Hermit Thrush and the Astronaut (Robert Black, solo bass)
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink (from Field Recordings)
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction
Philip Glass: Closing 

The Dosti Music Project brings together a group of musicians from Pakistan, India, and the U.S. for a month-long residency and tour. An initiative of the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, produced by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation, Dosti invites four Pakistanis, four Indians, and two U.S. musicians from a wide variety of traditions, ranging from Sufi singing to beat-making to avant-guard jazz, to collaboratively write, record, and perform original music, re-invent traditional music, and develop initiatives that will make a positive impact on communities locally and internationally. Dosti, which means friendship in both Urdu and Hindi, seeks to transcend political and cultural barriers through cross-cultural musical collaboration.

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform at Hope College, in Holland MI.

Program:

David Lang: sunray
Julia Wolfe: Believing
Kate Moore: Ridgeway
Michael Gordon: For Madeleine
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction
Philip Glass: Closing

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

Program:

David Lang: sunray
Julia Wolfe: Believing
Kate Moore: Ridgeway
Michael Gordon: For Madeleine
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction
Philip Glass: Closing

This performance is free!

More info 

The West Coast Premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning Anthracite Fields! Performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the LA Master Chorale, with visual designs by Jeff Sugg.

Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Ralf Chaczewsky perform Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields at the Queens Hall at Black Diamond, the brand new extension of the Danish National Library.

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings at the Barbican Centre, London. Program:

Julia Wolfe,  Reeling
Bryce Dessner, Letter 27
Dan Deacon, Sago An Ya Rev
Daniel Wohl, Holographic
Christian Marclay, Fade to Slide
Steve Reich, The Cave of Machpelah (excerpt from The Cave)
Todd Reynolds, Seven Sundays
Ben Frost,  Negative Ghostrider
Jóhan Jóhannsson, Hz
Alvin Lucier,  Firewood
Richard Reed Parry, The Brief and Neverending Blur
Paula Matthusen, the ontology of an echo
Anna Clyne,  Wonderful Day 

Bang on a Can All-Stars will perform Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer with Trio Mediaeval!

Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval perform Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer.

Bang on a Can brings our signature event – the Bang on a Can Marathon – to Rotterdam. With guests Ensemble Klang.

The program:

PART 1: 3-4PM
David Lang, Sunray
Julia Wolfe, Believing
Michael Gordon, For Madeline
Steve Martland, Horses of Instruction
– performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars

PART 2: 5-6PM
Brian Eno, Music for Airports (arr Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Evan Ziporyn)
– performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Codarts

PART 3: 6-7PM
Red Sofa Tafelmuziek: dinner with musicians and public

PART 4: 7-7:30PM
Red Sofa Pre-Concert Talk with the Bang on a Can All-Stars & Others

PART 5: 8-10:30PM
Oscar Bettison, ppop
Jan-Bas Bollen  Fuse
– performed by Ensemble Klang

Louis Andriessen, Life (with films by Marijke Van Warmerdam)
Martyn Padding Fix/us
– performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars

Peter Adriaansz  Nu descendant un escalier
Tom Johnson  Narayana’s Cows
– performed by Ensemble Klang

Christian Marclay, Fade to Slide with film (from Field Recordings
Anna Clyne, A Wonderful Day (from Field Recordings)
– performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars

Pete Harden, forgiven (world premiere)
– performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars & Ensemble Klang

Inspired by Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist, exhibition artist Arto Lindsay performs live music echoing themes of cultural experimentation and cross-pollination, breaking down distinctions between American and Brazilian rock music, pop music, experimental music, and improvisation.

Opening this summer’s series of concerts at the Noguchi Museum on June 12, jazz singer and new music composer Theo Bleckmann makes music that is accessibly sophisticated, unsentimentally emotional, and seriously playful. His work has been described as “from another planet” (New York Times), as “magical, futuristic,” (AllAboutJazz), “transcendent” (Village Voice) and “brilliant” (New York Magazine). The program will include Bleckmann as a vocalist in his own songs for voice, toys, electronic processing, piano.

Concerts at the Noguchi are free with museum admission and take place in the garden, weather permitting, or in the galleries, with some mats and limited bench seating available. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Photo: John Labbe

Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum present Mariachi Flor de Toloache as part of the Museum Mile Festival!

Now celebrating its 38th year, the annual Museum Mile Festival takes place rain or shine with free admission to the Jewish Museum and six other museums on Fifth Avenue. Enjoy live music by Mariachi Flor de Toloache in collaboration with Bang on a Can, family-friendly activities, and special exhibitions, including:

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History
Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist
Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Beatriz Milhazes
Masterpieces & Curiosities: The Fictional Portrait
The Television Project: Some of My Best Friends

Details on the Festival’s offerings can be found at MuseumMileFestival.org.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars and SITI Company perform Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer on the Arts and Ideas Festival in New Haven, CT

Directed by Anne Bogart
Music & Lyrics by Julia Wolfe
Original text by Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Regina Taylor
music performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars
play performed and created by SITI Company
Lighting Design by Brian H Scott
Scenic & Costume Design by James Schuette
Choreography by Barney O’Hanlon
Sound Design by Andrew Cotton and Christian Frederickson

2 Parts Music + 1 Part Food = an afternoon not to be missed.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars are joined by three of the hottest ensembles of the Polish jazz scene for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas Music Marathon.
Coming from the JAZZTOPAD Festival the Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Obara International Quartet, and Piotr Damasiewicz Quintet make their American Premiere blending tradition with contemporary sound.

The program for the All-Stars set is:

David Lang, sunray
Julia Wolfe,  Lick
Michael Gordon,  For Madeline
Steve Martland,  Horses of Instruction
Philip Glass,  Closing (from Glassworks)

Unparalleled Czech violinist/singer/composer Iva Bittová is recognized worldwide for her unique solo style, displaying a musical worldview and visionary creativity unlike any other. New York Magazine describes, “Her sound is invigorating, urgent, and also soothing; it is a fusion of Old World and new-music sensibilities.”

Concerts at the Noguchi are free with museum admission and take place in the garden, weather permitting, or in the galleries, with some mats and limited bench seating available. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The 15th Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA a musical utopia for composers and performers, takes place July 11-31 (with performances July 13-30)!

Our special guest composer for 2016 is John Luther Adams.

Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum present a concert by clarinetist-composer Don Byron. A long-time collaborator of Bang on a Can, Byron has always found exhilarating and unexpected musical avenues to explore, interpreting a wildly diverse range of styles and artists from funk-drenched R&B to klezmer, from gospel legend Thomas A. Dorsey to Mickey Katz, Duke Ellington to Junior Walker. Don Byron is renowned for his dedication to and innovation in quintessential American traditional music genres from klezmer to blues to bluegrass to gospel to jazz.

photo: Dave Weiland

American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), praised by The New York Times for its “tight, viscerally powerful performances” plays Philip Glass‘ luminous String Quartet No. 5 from 1991 and Meredith Monk‘s only string quartet Stringsongs from 2005, which they recently recorded for Q2 Music’s Meet the Composer Series. ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen gives the world premiere of ACME violinist/violist and composer Caleb Burhans‘ brand new solo cello piece, written for her.

Concerts at the Noguchi are free with museum admission and take place in the garden, weather permitting, or in the galleries, with some mats and limited bench seating available. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

photo: Mark Shelby Perry

He appears to float in the nothingness. Confined to a tall tower 20 feet above the seats, he is alone, broken, and has a story to tell.

In this daringly staged one-act opera from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang— featuring mezzanine-only seating and based on the novel by Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard— a failed piano student (baritone Rod Gilfry, Anna Nicole, 2013 Next Wave) recounts a life lived in the shadows of his famous friend Glenn Gould. As virtuoso pianist Conrad Tao and a chamber ensemble conducted by Karina Cannelakis accompany from far in the distance, the cavernous space engulfs the singer, as he sings of the distance that separates beauty from perfection.

Libretto, music, and stage direction by David Lang
Adapted from the novel by Thomas Bernhard
Translated from German by Jack Dawson
Conducted by Karina Canellakis
Lighting design by Jennifer Tipton
Set design by Jim Findlay
Sound design by Jody Elff
Costume design by Suzanne Bocanegra

Commissioned by BAM
Produced by Bang on a Can

the Argus String Quartet & Friends perform a concert featuring the music of Martin Bresnick, in honor of the composer’s 70th birthday. Bresnick’s expressive and direct music has influenced a generation of composers, including many Bang on a Can regulars. The program is fancifully titled “Homeward bound with a lawyer-horse, mice, and a worker who reads” and will include his Going Home, String Quartet #2 (Bucephalus), Josephine the Singer, and Songs of the Mouse People.

Concerts at the Noguchi are free with museum admission.

photo: Mark Ostow

The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings at the Teatro alle Tese as part of the Venice Biennale!

program:

Julia Wolfe: Reeling
Florent Ghys: An Open Cage
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide with film by Christian Marclay
David Lang: unused swan
Tyondai Braxton: Casino Trem
Jóhann Jóhannsson: Hz with film
Todd Reynolds: Seven Sundays
Steve Reich: The Cave of Machpelah
Bryce Dessner: Letter 27 with film
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day

As part of Bang on a Can’s on-going partnership with the Jewish Museum, we present composer/performer Pauline Oliveros, to accompany the exhibit Take Me (I’m Yours). Oliveros will perform The Sound of Meditation on her V-Accordion, an instrument that produces both accordion and orchestral sounds. The concert blurs the boundary between the performer and the audience by asking the listener to participate in the making of music through Deep Listening, which Pauline describes as “exploring the difference between the involuntary nature of hearing and the voluntary, selective nature – exclusive and inclusive – of listening.”

The All-Stars perform Field Recordings at Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany!

Program:

Julia Wolfe, Reeling
Florent Ghys, An Open Cage
Michael Gordon, Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison
Christian Marclay, Fade to Slide with film
David Lang, unused swan
Tyondai Braxton, Casino Trem
Caroline Shaw, Really Craft When You
Todd Reynolds, Seven Sundays
Steve Reich, The Cave of Machpelah
Bryce Dessner, Letter 27 with film
Anna Clyne, A Wonderful Day

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings at Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Brussels, Belgium.

program:

Julia Wolfe, Reeling
Florent Ghys, An Open Cage
Michael Gordon, Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison
Christian Marclay, Fade to Slide with film
David Lang, unused swan
Akiko Ushijima, Distorting Melody
Tyondai Braxton, Casino Trem
Johann Johannson, Hz with film
Todd Reynolds, Seven Sundays
Steve Reich, The Cave of Machpelah
Bryce Dessner, Letter 27 with film
Anna Clyne, A Wonderful Day

For our project “Bang on a Can @ Villa Musica”, the All-Stars will be cooperating with the Stiftung Villa Musica, which is dedicated to promoting young talent especially in the area of chamber music.

As part of a one-week festival, we will gather, rehearse and perform together with a group of young musicians from Germany. All of the musicians will appear in twelve concerts in various arrangements at the Frankfurter Hof in Mainz (Nov 19 and 26) and the Baroque Castle Engers in Neuwied (Nov 20-25). The festival will conclude with a 4-hour-long concert marathon.

Nov 20 at Frankfurter Hof 
tickets

Bang on a Can All-Stars program:
Steve Reich: Electric Counterpoint
David Lang: sunray
Julia Wolfe: Believing
Michael Gordon: For Madeleine
Louis Andriessen: Workers Union
Philip Glass: Closing

Nov 21-25 at Castle Engers
daily recitals at 5pm:
Nov 21 – Robert Black, (double bass)
Nov 22 – Ashley Bathgate (cello), Kai Schumacher  (piano)
Nov 23 – Vicky Chow (piano), Nora Krahl (cello)
Nov 24 – David Cossin and Jonathan Shapiro (percussion)
Nov 25 – Mark Stewart (multi-instrument), Adrian Sandi (clarinet)

Nov 26  at Frankfurter Hof 
tickets
Residency finale Marathon concert! Performance will include two world premieres by composers Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Felipe Waller and the following program (order tba): Florent Ghys – Etudes for 11 Faces, Michael Gordon – gene takes a drink, Judd Greenstein – Change, David Lang – these broken wings, Nicole Lizee – Hitchcock Etudes, Rene Lussier – Nocturne, Meredith Monk – PandaChant II, Frederic Rzewski – Coming Together, Gabriella Smith – Number Nine,  Julia Wolfe – early that summer.