Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields with the National Forum of Music Choir, led by Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny in Wroclaw, Poland!
Also on the program:
Michael Gordon, For Madeline
David Lang, Little Match Girl Passion
2 shows! January 12 and 13
The Bang on a Can All-Stars visit the Brighton Dome in the UK!
Program:
Steve Reich: Electric Counterpoint
Meredith Monk: Spaceship [arr Michael Gordon]
Meredith Monk: Totentanz [arr David Lang]
Brian Eno: Music for Airports 1/1 [arr. Michael Gordon]
Julia Wolfe: Believing
Philip Glass: Closing
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction
Bang on a Can All-Stars present 2 performances at Kings Place in London, including Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields (UK premiere!) as part of the Venus Unwrapped series! Check out their series trailer.
Jan 18:
Julia Wolfe: Reeling
Caroline Shaw: Really craft when you
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Fields
Kate Moore: Ridgeway
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide with film by Christian Marclay
Meredith Monk: Spaceship [arr Michael Gordon]
Meredith Monk: Totentanz [arr David Lang]
Julia Wolfe: Believing
Jan 19:
Anthracite Fields with with BBC Singers and conductor Tecwyn Evans
World premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my Mouth performed by the New York Philharmonic, The Crossing Choir, and Young People’s Chorus of NYC, with projections/scenography by Jeff Sugg.
Jaap van Zweden conducts Julia Wolfe’s immersive visual and musical event — featuring lights, chamber choir, video, and projection — that explores a seminal event in New York City, the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 that killed more than 100 young immigrants.
Part of New York Story: Threads of Our City.
Julia Wolfe and Bang on a Can salute EILEEN FISHER for their dedication to fair labor practices and for generously contributing wardrobe to the performances of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in My Mouth.
Three performances, Jan 24, 25, 26
David Lang returns to the LA Opera with the west coast premiere of his intimate work for baritone, piano and chamber ensemble – the loser – starring baritone Rod Gilfry
Music, libretto and stage direction: David Lang
Text adapted from the novel by Thomas Bernhard, translated from German by Jack Dawson
Scenery: Jim Findlay
Costumes: Suzanne Bocanegra
Lighting: Jennifer Tipton
Two shows, Feb 22 and Feb 23
The “extraordinarily skilled, passionate musicians” (NY Times) in ETHEL perform the complete string quartets of Julia Wolfe: Four Marys, Early that summer, Dig Deep, and Blue Dress for String Quartet. This is the first ever performance of ALL of Julia Wolfe’s string quartets at one time, on one stage. Julia Wolfe’s string quartets, as described by The New Yorker, “combine the violent forward drive of rock music with an aura of minimalist serenity [using] the four instruments as a big guitar, whipping psychedelic states of mind into frenzied and ecstatic climaxes.” This performance is presented in conjunction with the exhibition of fellow New York City cultural icon Martha Rosler: Irrespective.
The Peoples Commisioning Fund Concert is Bang on a Can’s annual performance of world premieres commissioned by our fans especially for the All-Stars! We’ll present new works by Josue Collado, Nicole Lizee, Trevor Weston, Henry Threadgill, and will also be performing classics from Annie Gosfield, Andrew Dreyblatt and Glann Branca. We are delighted to be part of the Ecstatic Music Festival, and to have this performance hosted by John Schaefer and New Sounds Live.
Bang on a Can All-Stars and students from University of Denver’s Lamont School perform Michael Gordon’s Big Space!
Program:
David Lang Sunray
Julia Wofe Big Beautiful Dark & Scary
Steve Martland Horses of Instruction
Ornette Coleman Haven’t been where I left
Philip Glass Closing
Michael Gordon Big Space
Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields with the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Verdigris Ensemble Chorus!
The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings on the Victoriaville Festival in Quebec, Canada!
Program:
Julia Wolfe, Reeling
Christian Marclay, Fade to Slide (with film by Christian Marclay)
Caroline Shaw, Really Craft When You
David Lang, unused swan
Michael Gordon, Gene Takes a Drink (with film by Bill Morrison)
René Lussier, Nocturne
Todd Reynolds, Seven Sundays
Steve Reich, The Cave of Machpelah (excerpt from The Cave) (arr. Michael Gordon)
Richard Reed Parry, The Brief and Neverending Blur
Nicole Lizée, Dancist (with film by Nicole Lizée)
Anna Clyne, A Wonderful Day
Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, composer/performer Meredith Monk offers one of her rare, more intimate concerts in her premiere at the Jewish Museum, with renowned members of her Vocal Ensemble, Katie Geissinger and Allison Sniffin. A long-time and frequent collaborator with Bang on a Can, Monk has been hailed as “a magician of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest composers”. The concert reflects Monk’s six decades of innovation and awe-inspiring vocal mastery, mining the depths of the myriad possibilities of the human voice and is presented in parallel with the exhibition Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, exploring Cohen’s inspiring, influential, and enduring legacy.
6pm Cocktails
7pm Dinner & Concert
8pm Awards & More Music
Tonight, we bestow our Visionary Award to Liz Diller for her many years of extraordinary creativity. But we also want to take this opportunity to highlight the incredible collaboration she made possible, partnering with a family of creative friends.
“in the shelter of the fold / epilogue”
In an intricately woven tapestry of sound, shape, momentum, and stillness, choreographer Doug Varone and his 13-member ensemble contemplate our private and public relationship to faith. in the shelter of the fold / epilogue comprises six interconnected vignettes, featuring original music by Lesley Flanigan, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Raz Mesinai, and Kevin Keller, masterfully interpreted by Flanigan, PUBLIQuartet, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Drawing upon Varone’s own personal questions about prayer as both a spiritual and secular dialogue, this episodic work digs deep to ask how and why we find shelter in the unknown.
4 shows, June 5, 6, 7, 8 at 7:30pm
Miles Okazaki performs Work: the compositions of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar. Miles Okazaki was armed only with his solo guitar when he recorded all 70 known compositions by Thelonious Monk. It’s an undertaking of such ambition, even Monk never got there. Okazaki speaks of the work in visual, special terms – “It’s like a crystal…it’s got all these angles inside of it…It’s three-dimensional…And it’s African rhythmically.”
Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob performs on the Museum Mile, New York City’s biggest block party! It’s free!
Now celebrating its 20th year, Sexmob (Steven Bernstein – slide trumpet, Briggan Krauss – saxophones, Tony Scherr – bass, Kenny Wollesen – drums) continues to deconstruct familiar pop tunes with subversive impunity. Music by Prince, John Barry, the Grateful Dead, Nirvana, the Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield, Paul McCartney, and ABBA is fair game for this band of musical renegades.
The Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC), founded and directed by Francisco J. Núñez, perform a concert that will include songs and poems by Leonard Cohen and others, coinciding with the Jewish Museum exhibition, “Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything.” Recognized throughout New York City and internationally as one of the leading and most diverse children’s choirs, YPC is a longtime and frequent collaborator with Bang on a Can, and has forged a unique presence in the city’s music community both as a champion commissioner and performer of new works by today’s leading composers and for its innovative vocal arrangements that consistently cross all musical borders.
As 75 Dollar Bill, plywood crate percussionist Rick Brown and guitarist Che Chen make electric, richly patterned music that can shape shift from joyful dance tunes to slowly changing trance minimalism – an uncategorizable hybrid which draws on early electric blues, the modal traditions of West Africa, India and the Middle East, Sun Ra’s space chords and the minimalist and No Wave histories of their home town. New album I Was Real coming June 28 on Thin Wrist/Black Editions Group (and tak:til/Glitterbeat Records in Europe).
While Brown and Chen are the core of 75 Dollar Bill, the duo are at the center of an organic extended family of friends and players that often appear with them live and on record. For this event the group will present a special set of material conceived with the unique environs of the Noguchi Museum in mind.
The Bang on a Can Summer Music Insitute at MASS MoCA is a 3 week residency and musical utopia for composers and performers, featuring concerts in the gallery at 1:30 and 4:30 most days and culminating in a 3-day festival – LOUD Weekend
1:30 lunch concerts July 18-19, July 22-26, July 29-Aug 2, performed by festival fellows.
4:30 gallery concerts:
July 19 – Ghanaian Drumming with Nani Agbeli
July 22 – Nick Photinos, cello
July 23 – Mark Stewart, multi-instrumentalist
July 24 – Karl Larson, piano
July 25 – Todd Reynolds, violin
July 26 – Gregg August, Ken Thomson and friends
July 27 – Found Sound Nation workshop performances
July 31 – New short pieces by festival composers
View LOUD Weekend schedule and program
Some highlights of the inaugural Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA include: the electric Bang on a Can All-Stars performing Field Recordings, a major multi-media concert of endless ambient textures, film, and electro-acoustic forays into the future; Daniel Reimer, Dither Guitar Quartet, the incomparable and outer-planetary Sun Ra Arkestra; Dracula – the timeless, classic, original 1931 film brought to life with Philip Glass’ acclaimed score, featuring Michael Riesman of the Philip Glass Ensemble; Brian Eno’s pre-ambient classic Discreet Music performed by Contact ensemble (Toronto); a communal, open-to-the-public, all ages and skill levels ‘performance’ of Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Mediations; a hypnotic other-worldly odyssey solo set by electronic multi-instrumentalist and singer Julianna Barwick; the just intonation electric guitar driven Baltimore band Horse Lords; pioneering composer-singer Pamela Z’s unique blend of operatic bel canto and live digital creations; composer-singer-instrument inventor Lesley Flanigan’s live sonic sculpture; special guest composers Annie Gosfield, Tristan Perich, Brendon Randall-Myers, PLUS music by Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and more.
AND PERFORMANCES BY Gregg August, Vicky Chow, David Cossin, Mark Stewart, Ken Thomson, Brad Lubman, Nick Photinos, Todd Reynolds, Lauren Radnofsky, additional solo sets by Michael Riesman, and many more!
Best known for his transcendent albums like Celestial Vibration and Essence/Universe to the Brian Eno-produced Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, Laraaji’s mystical and uplifting combination of zither, vocals, and more have made a profound impact on listeners for decades.
Balún is a self-proclaimed “dreambow” quartet whose members hail from Puerto Rico. Though currently residing in New York City, Island culture remains the cornerstone of their forward-thinking, malleable sound. Balún incorporates Caribbean rhythms, old school dembow, glitchy IDM and dreamy dance pop into tunes that are slick and modern but firmly rooted in the traditional sounds of their homeland. balunonline.com
This performance is free as part of Free First Friday.
The Bang on a Can All-Stars and the NDR choir, directed by Ralf Sochaczewsky, perform Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields in the Staatsoper Hannover. This performance is part of the Niedersächsischen Musiktage!
Build and play instruments with Mark Stewart and then hear Bang on a Can’s street band Asphalt Orchestra on the plaza at 300 Ashland Place in downtown, Brooklyn (corner of Lafayette and Flatbush)!! It’s all part of the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Festival happening all weekend and it’s FREE!
3-4:30 Mark Stewart’s Orchestra of Original Instruments
4:30 Asphalt Orchestra
Theo Bleckmann Performs Hello Earth! – The Music of Kate Bush
Grammy nominated jazz singer and new music composer Theo Bleckmann takes on the mysterious songbook of British pop icon Kate Bush in a project that goes beyond re-creating her music to further realms of sound and interpretation. Joining him in this venture are long-time collaborator percussionist Ben Wittman, bassist Chris Tarry, and keyboardist Henry Hey, along with special guest, multi-instrumentalist Caleb Burhans on viola, guitar, and laptop. This season’s Bang on a Can performances celebrate the power of artists voices, which resonates with themes in the Museum’s fall exhibitions.
