People’s Commissioning Fund Concert

PLUS Bang on a Can 30 Years Kick-off Party!

New works by Nico Muhly, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Juan Felipe Waller, St Remy from Michael Gordon‘s chamber opera Van Gogh, music by Philip Glass and more. The concert is part of the Ecstatic Music Festival, and will be hosted by John Schaefer and broadcast on WNYC-FM’s pioneering show New Sounds Live.

The Bang on a Can People’s Commissioning Fund (PCF) concert is one of the most anticipated and reliable launching pads for emerging composers in New York and beyond. Founded in 1997, long before crowd-funding became the norm through Kickstarter and the like, Bang on a Can’s PCF has pooled contributions of all sizes from hundreds of friends and fans and since its inception has commissioned over 40 works of music. Bang on a Can celebrates 30 Years in 2017! Come join the party!

Program:

David Lang   sunray
Anna Thorvaldsdottir  Fields
Juan Felipe Waller  Hybrid Ambiguities
Nico Muhly   Comfortable Cruising Altitude
Michael Gordon   St. Remy (from Van Gogh)
Julia Wolfe   Believing
Philip Glass   Bed (from Einstein on the Beach)
Philip Glass   Closing (from Glassworks)

Composed for seven bassoons, Rushes takes its place alongside Michael Gordon’s Timber for expanding the boundaries of a single instrument’s repertoire into unknown (and at times, otherworldly) spaces. Like Timber, which maps new percussive territory for the simantra—a simple two-by-four slab of wood, amplified and played in a group of six to yield trance-like sonic textures—Rushes brings out tonal and timbral aspects of the bassoon that are meant to induce a quasi-meditative, almost ecstatic state, in the listener as well as the performer.

For our UAE debut, the All-Stars will perform music from the Field Recordings project as well as a world premiere piece, commissioned by The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Festival, by celebrated Emirati-American composer Mohammed Fairouz. 

The All-Stars will also be in residence for an intensive weekend workshop for contemporary musicians from the region (open by invitation only.)

Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer performed by SITI Company and the Bang on a Can All-Stars with singers Emily Eagen, Katie Geissinger, Molly Quinn
Directed by Anne Bogart

Bang on a Can’s street band Asphalt Orchestra plays two shows in Berlin as part of “Festival USA” at the Konzerthaus Berlin!

Feb 16 – pop up concerts tba

Feb 17 – Late night concert at 10pm in Werner-Otto Saal

Program:
Frank Zappa, Zomby Woof (arr Peter Hess)
Thomas Mapfumo,  Ngoma Yekwedu (arr Alex Hamlin)
Charles Mingus,  The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers (arr Jose Davila)
Ken Thomson, Turn Around
Meredith Monk, St Petersburg Waltz (arr Ken Thomson)
tUnE-yArDs/Merrill Garbus, Bizness (arr Ken Thomson)
Michael Gordon, Tree-oh (arr Ken Thomson)
Pixies/Kim Deal, Gigantic (arr Nathan Koci)
Ivo Papasov, Ivo’s Ruchenitsa (arr Peter Hess)

Bonjour is a low string band with drums/percussion founded in 2012 by bassist and composer Florent Ghys whose performance corresponds to the Museum’s exhibition Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design. Chareau, originally from Bordeaux, rose to become one of Paris’s most fashionable designers of the early 20th Century.  Ghys, also originally from Bordeaux, is one of New York’s most creative composer-performers of the early 21st Century.  Combining basses, cello, guitars, percussion, and voices, Ghys has assembled a sizzling group of some of New York’s top young musicians and Bang on a Can regulars to create an unusual sound world that’s equal parts groove, melody and meditation.  From jazz-laced indie-pop to ambient chamber music, Bonjour shimmers with influences that push it beyond the safety net of “new classical” music to something altogether edgy, adventurous, and even slightly art-damaged.

Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning oratorio Anthracite Fields for the Bang on a Can All-Stars and choir, with Cappella SF, conducted by Ragnar Bohlin.

Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning oratorio Anthracite Fields for the Bang on a Can All-Stars and choir, with the UI Chamber Singers.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings at Georgia Tech! 

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

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform on the Warhol Museum’s Sound Series, performing music from the Field Recordings project at the Warhol at Carnegie Lecture Hall.

Program:

Julia Wolfe: Reeling
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide [with film]
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink [with film by Bill Morrison]
David Lang: unused swan
Caroline Shaw: Really Craft When You
Steve Reich: The Cave of Machpelah (excerpt from The Cave)
Jóhann Jóhannsson: Hz [with film]
Gabriella Smith: Panitao
Bryce Dessner: Letter 27
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day
Nick Zammuto: Real Beauty Turns

Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Penn State choir perform Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning oratorio Anthracite Fields.

Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Bucknell Camerata perform Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning oratorio Anthracite Fields

The Bang on a Can All-Stars and special guests perform the music of Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, as part of the project curated by Steve Reich – Three Generations – celebrating his 80th birthday.

Performers
Bang on a Can All-Stars with:
Kelli Kathman, Flute
Roberta Michel, Flute
Peter Hess, Saxophones
David Friend, Keyboard
Michael Gordon, Keyboard
Nathan Koci, Accordion
Todd Reynolds, Violin
Gregg August, Bass

and:
JACK Quartet

Program:

DAVID LANG cheating, lying, stealing
JULIA WOLFE Lick
JULIA WOLFE Early That Summer
MICHAEL GORDON Yo Shakespeare

Performance includes a discussion with Steve Reich, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon

Presented as part of Westminster’s Transforming Space project, the All-Stars and the Westminster Choir perform Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer prize winning oratorio Anthracite Fields, in the monumental space of the Roebling Wireworks in Trenton, NJ. Staging for this performance by Doug Varone!

Pre-Performance Talk for both April 21 and 22 shows at 7:15 p.m – Julia Wolfe, conductor Joe Miller and historian and preservationist Clifford Zink will present a talk about Anthracite Fields, the significance of the performance site and the Transforming Space project before each performance. Coal from the Anthracite mines played a vital role in Trenton’s industrial success, which inspired the slogan “Trenton Makes, the World Takes.”

The Bang on a Can All-Stars and Julia Wolfe will be in residence at Drew University April 24-26!

Monday 24 April
7-9PM Steel Hammer – An Inside Look: A Discussion with Julia Wolfe and the Bang on a Can All-Stars on the Making of Steel Hammer
In this lecture demonstration Julia Wolfe and the Bang on a Can All-Stars will perform music and discuss the building of this new work which explores the quintessential American worker ballad John Henry, and its implication for labor history then and now. Q&A following the talk.

Tuesday 25 April
1:15-3:45PM Open Reading of Student Works (For the class: Special Topics in Documentary Expression, co-taught by Julia Wolfe and Associate Professor of Art Rebecca Soderholm) and Q&A with the musicians.

Wednesday 26 April
3:30-6:30PM Open rehearsal for 8PM concert, plus Q&A with the musicians
8PM: The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer

All events are free and open to the public!

Pianist and Bang on a Can All Stars member Vicky Chow performs Tristan Perich’s Surface Image for solo piano. This monumental performance-installation with 40-channel 1-bit electronics echoes the shimmering quality of Paris’ 19th century arcades and is presented in conjunction with The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin and his renowned essay “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”

30th Anniversary BANG ON A CAN MARATHON
Saturday, May 6, 2017 from 2-10pm
8 hours of Live Music!

200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY
Admission: FREE with Museum admission

Suggested donation $16 before 5pm; free after 5pm courtesy of Target First Saturdays.

Bang on a Can comes to Brooklyn with its annual incomparable super-mix of boundary-busting music from around the corner and around the world! The 2017 Bang on a Can Marathon will feature 8 hours of rare performances by some of the most innovative musicians of our time side-by-side with some of today’s most pioneering young artists.

2017 BANG ON A CAN MARATHON SCHEDULE (subject to change):

2pm

• Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars with Emily Eagen, Katie Geissinger, and Molly Quinn

3:30pm

• Innov Gnawa

4pm

• Caroline Shaw
• Joan La Barbara’s A Murmuration for Chibok performed by the Young People’s Chorus of NYC led by Francisco Nuñez
• Oliver Lake Crash Bang Trio with Bill McClellan and Reggie Nicholson, drums

5pm

• Rabbit Rabbit (Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi)
• The Pixies/Kim Deal’s Gigantic (arr. Nathan Koci) performed by Asphalt Orchestra
• Merrill Garbus/tUnE-yArDs’ Bizness (arr. Ken Thomson) performed by Asphalt Orchestra

6pm

• Michael Gordon’s No Anthem performed by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, directed by Timothy Weiss. (New York Premiere)
• Kaki King

7pm

• Louis Andriessen’s De Staat performed by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble
• Selections from Meredith Monk’s Cellular Songs performed by Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble

8pm

• Amir ElSaffar’s Crisis performed by his Two Rivers Ensemble
• David Lang’s just (after song of songs) performed by the Just Ensemble

9pm

• Kendall Williams and Pan in Motion
• Ivo Papasov’s Ivo’s Ruchenitsa (arr. Peter Hess) performed by Asphalt Orchestra
• Women’s Raga Massive

Lead Marathon support by ASCAP.

Pianos provided by Steinway.

BANG ON A CAN at MoMA – Music Among Friends

Throughout Robert Rauschenberg’s six-decade career, he moved freely between the worlds of visual art and avant-garde music. Beginning in the early 1950s, Rauschenberg worked closely with the composers and performers associated with the New York School, including such pioneering experimental figures as Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor, and Christian Wolff. This rich dialogue shaped Rauschenberg’s approach to art making as well as that of his musical collaborators. In conjunction with the exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends, David Lang and Bang on a Can present a pair of concerts featuring commentary exploring these artistic exchanges and their legacy for contemporary music.

Tuesday, May 23: Part 1 featuring Bang on a Can All-Stars
(performance features longtime Rauschenberg collaborator Christian Wolff in conversation with David Lang). 

Morton Feldman: Ixion
Bryce Dessner: Letter 27 with film featuring Charles Olsen
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide with film by Christian Marclay
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day
Christian Wolff: Suite (I) for prepared piano
Christian Wolff: Exercises 29 and 30

Wednesday, May 24: Part 2
John Cage: 4’33”
Jody Elff/David Lang: After David Tudor (homage to Fluorescent Sound) 
John Cage: Atlas Eclipticalis 

The All-Stars will perform a specially devised program “Bang on a Canada” that features selections from Field Recordings, most of which will be Canadian premieres. Works by Canadian composers Richard Reed Parry and René Lussier will be anchored by a world premiere from John Oswald, commissioned by The Royal Conservatory/Koerner Hall.

Program:
Eliot Britton: Cuneiform and Glide (1st movement) -Vicky Chow, solo piano
Julia Wolfe: Reeling
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
John Oswald: new work
-intermission-
Allison Cameron: 3rds, 4ths & 5ths
Richard Reed Parry: The Brief and Neverending Blur
Caroline Shaw: Really Craft When You
René Lussier: Nocturne
Steve Reich: The Cave of Machpelah
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day

Innov Gnawa is a young musical collective dedicated to exploring Morocco’s venerable gnawa music tradition in the heart of New York City. Formed in the summer of 2014 by Moroccan expat Samir LanGus, the group draws on the considerable talents and expertise of Hassan Ben Jaafer, a Maâlem, a master gnawa musician, originally from Fes, Morocco. Hailed by Brooklyn Magazine as one of the “5 Bands You Need to Know in Brooklyn’s Arabic Music Scene”, Innov Gnawa make great use of traditional repertoire, and add their own, contemporary spin with additional African and Latin percussion.

Performances are free with Museum admission, and seating is available on garden benches and floor mats on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars travel to Athens Greece for two shows!

June 18 – 8:30pm – Music for Airports

June 19 – 9:00pm – Anthracite Fields with the Fons Musicalis choir.

Both shows are FREE!

Bang on a Can All-Stars join with Cappella Amsterdam for Julia Wolfe’s oratorio Anthracite Fields.

Yuka Honda, a Japanese composer/musician and producer teams up with innovative percussionist Susie Ibarra.

Performances are free with Museum admission, and seating is available on garden benches and floor mats on a first-come, first-served basis.

Cloud River Mountain

Enter the world of the gods, spirits, and shamans of ancient Chinese myths and poetry in this evening-length work co-composed by Lao Luo and Bang on a Can Co-Artistic Directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe.

Your guide is the extraordinary Chinese vocalist Gong Linna, whose dynamic voice travels across vast terrains of sonic colors. Her adventurous artistic range that embraces Chinese folk, pop, and avant-garde art music has drawn comparisons to Björk. Singing in both Mandarin and English, she joins the Bang on a Can All-Stars for a thrilling cross-cultural voyage through dramatic musical landscapes, from groove-driven melodies and lyrical meditations to punk back beats and stratospheric vocalizations.

The Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) is a musical utopia for innovative musicians in the beautiful Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts. The cornerstone of the residency are the public performances which run from July 19- Aug 5. The performances include daily recitals by faculty and fellows of the residency in the MASS MoCA galleries (free with museum admission), additional free performances in the community, and a festival finale blow-out concert – a 6 hour performance in the Hunter Center on Aug 5 with special guest composer Louis Andriessen! 

Our festival performance schedule is underway. Please click here for up-to-date performance information. 

Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum present the distinctive and exceptional indie-guitarist Kaki King in conjunction with the exhibit Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry. Much like Florine Stettheimer, who created her own individual universe through her unique sensibilities and playful imagery, King uses extended techniques to create her own musical universe outside the mainstream.

Alsarah is a Sudanese-born singer, songwriter and ethnomusicologist. Residing in Brooklyn, NY she is a self-proclaimed practitioner of East-African Retro-Pop working on various projects. She has toured both nationally and internationally with critically acclaimed groups such as the Nile Project, where she was featured on their debut CD, Aswan (named in the top 5 must hear international albums by NPR). She has also released 1 full-length album with French producer Débruit titled Aljawal (Soundways Recordings), as well as 2 full-length albums with her current band, Alsarah & the Nubatones, Silt (2014) and Manara (2016) (Wonderwheel Recordings).

Performances are free with Museum admission, and seating is available on garden benches and floor mats on a first-come, first-served basis.

Bang on a Can continues our 30th year celebration with a concert at the BBC Proms, including a world premiere by Michael Gordon written for the All-Stars and the Proms Youth Ensemble

Program

Michael Gordon: Big Space – world premiere, commissioned by BBC Proms!
David Lang: sunray
Julia Wolfe: Big Beautiful Dark & Scary
Philip Glass: Closing
Louis Andriessen: Workers Union

Trina Basu and Arun Ramamurthy join forces to create a musical dialogue between improvising string traditions. Well-versed in the rhythmic and melodic concepts of South Indian classical music and the harmonic language of Western classical, jazz, and folk music, the duo presents original compositions that explore the beauty found at the intersections of their creative backgrounds. The intuitive nature of two violinists allows for moments of unbridled spontaneity and intimate connection. Their sound has been described as raga meets fiddle meets experimental.

Performances are free with Museum admission, and seating is available on garden benches and floor mats on a first-come, first-served basis.

OneBeat 2017!

OneBeat is a music exchange and incubator for music-based social entrepreneurship, where innovative musicians from around the world launch collaborative projects designed to make a positive impact on local and global communities. An initiative of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and produced by Found Sound Nation, OneBeat is cultivating a groundbreaking international network of leading artistic, technological, and social innovators in music.

OneBeat 2017 starts on Sept 20 with a two-week residency at Caldera Arts Center in Sisters OR, followed by a two week tour of the Western States.

The All-Stars perform selections from the new collaboration between Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe – Road Trip! As well as classics from their repertoire  – sunray, cheating lying stealing, and Lick.  Klaipeda Festival in Lithuania.

We call it Road Trip. The tank is full, the top is down, and we have our collective hand on the dial for a euphoric musical journey celebrating 30 years of Bang on a Can. Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe flood the waves with an original mash-up of wind-in-your-hair tunes that capture the sublime exhilaration of freedom and possibility. Performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, with stunning scenic design by projection artist CandyStations (Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent) and stage direction by Michael Counts, “Road Trip” is a tribute to journeys of all sorts, and the people who make them. There is a road, but it is no simple highway.

World premiere!!

We call it Road Trip. The tank is full, the top is down, and we have our collective hand on the dial for a euphoric musical journey celebrating 30 years of Bang on a Can. Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe flood the waves with an original mash-up of wind-in-your-hair tunes that capture the sublime exhilaration of freedom and possibility. Performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, with stunning scenic design by projection artist CandyStations (Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent) and stage direction by Michael Counts, “Road Trip” is a tribute to journeys of all sorts, and the people who make them. There is a road, but it is no simple highway.

Stage Direction by Michael Counts
Scenic design by Deborah Johnson aka CandyStations
Lighting design by Ben Stanton
 

Commissioned by BAM for the 2017 Next Wave Festival and by Stephen A. Block, Robert Braun & Joan Friedman, Leslie Lassiter, Raulee Marcus, Maria & Robert A. Skirnick, Jane and Richard Stewart, with additional support from Jerry Eberhardt and Phil Hettema, plus the many individual donors to the Bang on a Can 30th Anniversary “Road Trip” Fund.

Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer-prize winning oratorio Anthracite Fields will be presented on the Autumn Strings Festival in Prague! The Bang on a Can All-Stars will be joined by the Martinů Voices, conducted by Lukáš Vasilek.

Sensuous and lyrical, La Mar Enfortuna is a modern exploration of lost and forgotten Sephardic melodies, creatively arranged, and performed in various languages including Arabic and Spanish. Long-time collaborators Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow lead an all-star cast on modern and ancient instruments, incorporating the sounds of jazz, folk, Middle Eastern, and Latin music.  Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Modigliani Unmasked, which focuses on drawings illuminating the artist’s heritage as an Italian Sephardic Jew.

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform their evening-length collaborative work Field Recordings as part of the November Music Festival (Verkadefabriek Hall) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

This performance will feature a new composition by Aart Strootman!

Julia Wolfe: Reeling 
Florent Ghys: An Open Cage 
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison 
Juan Felipe Waller: Hybrid Ambiguities 
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide with film by Christian Marclay 
David Lang: unused swan 
Aart Strootman: Lesson 25 – Time (world premiere!)
Caroline Shaw: Really Craft When You 
Steve Reich: The Cave of Machpelah 
Bryce Dessner: Letter 27 with film 
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day 

Bang on a Can All-Stars and Cappella Amsterdam perform Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields on the Sounds of Music Festival at the Grand Theater in Groningen, Holland

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform on the ROCKIT Festival – “A journey into jazz and beyond”

The festival also includes Herbie Hancock, tUnE-yArDs, Knower, and more!