Ryuichi Sakamoto “was arguably the best-known and most successful Japanese musician in the world.” (Peter Tasker, Nikkei Asia) He won an Oscar for his soundtrack to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and several Golden Globes and Grammy awards and nominations for other films. In 1992, he scored the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics, conducting the orchestra while a billion people watched. Sakamoto’s film scores are renowned for their diversity and sensitivity, it is rare for a band to play this music live. and now the Bang on a Can All-Stars realize their own new live arrangements 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 – music from films including The Last Emperor, Wuthering Heights, The Sheltering Sky, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and more. The Bang on a Can All-Stars play Ryuichi Sakamoto is an exploration, a tribute, a celebration.
Composer Julia Wolfe takes you to the coalmines of Pennsylvania, near the town where she grew up, in a place that the composer experienced as the Wild West for a long time. Her poignant Anthracite Fields honors the miners and their families who literally fueled America’s wealth for decades, at the cost of their own health. As in many of her works, Wolfe unearths a piece of American history that is not found in school textbooks or collective memory. For this compelling work for choir and augmented ensemble, the Flemish Radio Choir and Bart Van Reyn join forces with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, for whom Wolfe wrote the piece in 2014.
Bang on a Can All-Stars
- Vicky Chow, piano
- David Cossin, percussion
- Arlen Hlusko, cello
- Tristan Kasten-Krause, bass
- Taylor Levine, guitar
- Ken Thomson, clarinet and bass clarinet