Bang on a Can and MASS MoCA Present LOUD Weekend
Friday, July 30 & Saturday, July 31, 2021
A fully loaded, 2-day, eclectic super-mix of minimal, experimental and electronic music
www.massmoca.org/event/bang-on-a-can-loud-weekend-2021
“I’ve rarely witnessed such a seamless melding of art and music.” – New York Magazine
“nothing could have prepared me for the whirlwind…” – The Boston Globe
We’re back! We’re live! We’re LOUD WEEKEND! This year we welcome our friends the Kronos Quartet, the intrepid troubadours of experimental music who come bearing ear-bending world premieres by Terry Riley, Mary Kouyoumdjian and Sky Macklay. We pay tribute to Martin Bresnick, a shining light of American music celebrating his 75th birthday. We open the second LW as we did the first, with the overlooked, and now newly discovered minimalist giant Julius Eastman. We walk into the wondrous world of Dana Jessen and her switched-on bassoon featuring George Lewis’s ground-shaking Seismologic. We welcome the joyous jazz-infused music of singer/violinist Mazz Swift. We take an other-worldly trip into Gérard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum. Robert Honstein takes us on an exquisite sonic walking tour through the rooms of his childhood home. We are transported into the voices, songs and stories that run through Nathalie Joachim’s powerful Famn d’Ayiti. And so much more!
We pay special tribute to our friend and mentor, the late-great Louis Andriessen. And we are honored to present the world premiere of one of Frederic Rzewski’s last compositions, Amoramaro, which he wrote for the amazing pianist Lisa Moore. We spent the pandemic presenting 10 online solo marathons – commissioning composers, supporting musicians, doing what we could to keep the experimental music world alive.
Running throughout Loud Weekend are 19 of these Pandemic Solos, all receiving their first performances in front of a live audience, all commissioned by Bang on a Can. Plus – a highlight of every summer – world premieres by the newest freshest voices of the Composer Fellows!
– Michael Gordon, David Lang & Julia Wolfe
Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA hourly schedule:
Friday, July 30, 2021: 4pm-11pm
3:30pm O of OI (The Orchestra of Original Instruments) [Front Courtyard]
Led by musical polymath Mark Stewart, the Summer Fellows let loose with a symphonic cacophony performed on homemade instruments made from everyday materials.
4:00pm JULIUS EASTMAN, Femenine [Hunter Center]
The past few years have seen a breathtaking rediscovery of the explosively joyous music by the late Julius Eastman. Femenine, from 1974, is a monumental fusion of minimalism and jazz-informed improvisation.
5;30pm LISA MOORE plays FREDERIC RZEWSKI’s Amoramaro (World Premiere) and more [Building 6 Event Space]
Philip Glass Mad Rush | Don Byron Seven Etudes | Frederic Rzewski Amoramaro | Martin Bresnick Ishi’s Song, Bundists
Lisa Moore premieres Amoramaro, one of the last compositions by the incredibly influential composer Frederic Rzewski, which he wrote just for her. Rzewski died just one month ago, so we’re especially pleased to present this premiere in tribute. The other works are highlights from Lisa’s broad and deep repertoire. Our history with Lisa dates back to the earliest years; she was founding pianist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars.
5:30pm
ARLEN HLUSKO plays “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can World premieres by Gabriel Kahane, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Leyla McCalla [Sol LeWitt Gallery]
We’re ecstatic to introduce the newest member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Arlen Hlusko, as she premieres three works that explore the hidden alleys and passageways of the cello.
6:45pm
MARTIN BRESNICK 75TH BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE Martin Bresnick Caprichos Enfaticos and Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano [Hunter Center]
Martin Bresnick is one of America’s most thoughtful, elegant and influential composers. Here, in honor of his 75th birthday, we present two of his most titanic chamber works.
8:15pm
Bang on a Can Summer Festival Faculty play “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can [Club B10]
TODD REYNOLDS plays world premiere by Dai Wei and music by Paul De JongLAUREN RADNOFSKY plays world premiere by Brad LubmanGREGG AUGUST plays world premiere by Ailie Robertson
Local hero Todd Reynolds plays music by local hero Paul de Jong, along with a premiere by Dai Wei, who wrote Song for Shades of Crimson in response to the gradual shading of the world map as the covid pandemic spread. Renowned for leading Ensemble Signal and Steve Reich & Musicians, Brad Lubman also composes and he wrote can you make a prayer for Lauren Radnofsky on cello. Ailie Robertson’s The Bells Are All Silent, written for bassist Gregg August, is inspired by her own performance on the Celtic Harp and by the eerie “pandemic silences” throughout her neighborhood in Glasgow.
8:15pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play music by Louis Andriessen, Philip Glass, and Meredith Monk[Building 6 Event Space]
Meredith Monk Spaceship (arr. Michael Gordon) | Louis Andriessen Workers Union | Philip Glass Closing (arr. Michael Riesman) Bang on a Can All-Stars pay tribute to our friend and mentor, the great Dutch composer Louis Andriessen (1939-2021).
Louis visited Bang on a Can at MASS MoCA several times and left us a legacy of in-your-face music that we love to play again and again. His 1975 classic, Workers Union, is a manifesto drawing parallels between a leaderless worker-run factory and a musical ensemble.
9:00pm
KRONOS QUARTET plays music by Jlin, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Tanya Tagaq, Stacy Garrop, Mary Kouyoumdjian*, Abel Meeropol, Antonio Haskell, Jacob Garchick (*world premiere) [Hunter Center]
For the past 48 years (!) Kronos Quartet hasbeen experimental culture’s most active, most revolutionary, and most visible ambassador to the world.
10:15pm
GÉRARD GRISEY, Vortex Temporum [Building 6 Event Space]
Bigger-than-life, this whirlwind composition conquered Europe with its gritty lush and other-worldly sonic landscape. Vortex Temporumis the magnum opus of the late French “spectralist” composer Gérard Grisey. Opening with a quote from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and then taking off into unheard-of sonic worlds, this is a unique immersion into the world of French Spectralism.
10:15pm
BANDA DE LOS MUERTOS [The Chalet]
Balancing traditionalism with modern fl are, Banda de los Muertos was formed in Brooklyn by two freethinking jazz musicians, the clarinetist Oscar Noriega and the trombonist Jacob Garchik. The ensemble plays the brassy Mexican music hybrid known as banda, and wherever they go it’s always a party!
Saturday, July 31, 2021: 10:30am-11pm
10:30am
“Listening Session” with DAVID HARRINGTON (Kronos Quartet) [Club B10]
David Harrington, founder and artistic director of Kronos Quartet, acts as DJ for this session, sharing picks from the vast personal music collection he’s built over four decades of world tours with Kronos… the sounds that inspire one of the world’s most adventurous musical ensembles. A perfect start to a “Marathon” day of ear-opening music.
11:00am
ROBERT BLACK plays “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can [Building 6 Events Space]
World premieres by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, Jakhongir Shukur, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir Robert Black, fearless explorer of the double bass, brings international premieres to LOUD Weekend. Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė sensuous music takes the double bass to the dark depths of the ocean’s Abyssal Zone. Uzbek composer Jakhongir Shukur has Robert strumming and pounding to create a myriad of colors. Icelandic composer María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir is a member of the cult band Amiina and spent years of touring with Sigur Rós. She brings her unique voice to the large strings. You can continue this adventure with the double bass at the monthly First Fridays with Robert Black on live.bangonacan.org. Next show, August 6!
12:00pm
NEWEST VOICES WORLD PREMIERE COMPOSER CONCERT [Hunter Center]
Music by Nathan Bales, Erich Barganier, Christian Quiñones, Theo Baer, Melika Fitzhugh, Brian Krock, Lila Meretzky
A highlight of every summer, seven world premieres by the newest freshest voices of the composer fellows. This year’s 2021 Bang on a Can Summer Festival commissions will not disappoint!
1:45pm
DANA JESSEN plays Through a Fragile Traverse with video by Eli Stine [Club B10]
Dana Jessen, Through a Fragile Traverse plus George Lewis, Seismologic
Bassoon is the new hip thing and Dana Jessen is its oracle! Her switched-on bassoon shakes the ground with George Lewis’s Seismologic, inspired by the seismic movement of massive faults; and Jessen’s very own Through A Fragile Traverse crosses into her personal universe, accompanied by Eli Stine’s trippy video.
2:00pm
MICHAEL GORDON, Weather One | DAVID LANG, almost all the time [Building 6 Events Space]
Strings and strings! Enter Lang’s fragile hushed almost all the time where a quartet of strings journey through the celestial orbs. Then buckle in for Gordon’s revved-up baroque-heavy sextet Weather One conducted by our very own maestro Brad Lubman.
3:00pm
STEVE REICH, Quartet | JULIA WOLFE, Dark Full Ride [Hunter Center]
Two striking takes on the percussion quartet. Reich’s jangly pulsing Quartet will put you in an ecstatic trance state. Wolfe’s Dark Full Ride—the name is taken from writing on the back side of a ride cymbal—powers us to heaven in a 4-drumset dance/metal extravaganza.
4:00pm
ROBERT HONSTEIN, Soul House [Building 6 Events Space]
Part memoir, part essay—in nine short exquisite movements, composer Robert Honstein draws a connection between ancient funerary memories of his own childhood home.
4:15pm
SHELLEY WASHINGTON, Uniforms, Silk, Big Talk [Club B10]
The dynamic young composer Shelley Washington offers up loud, obsessively rhythmic and propulsive recent works for saxes and an amplified trio.
5:00pm
NATHALIE JOACHIM sings Fanm d’Ayiti [Hunter Center]
With Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti) composer, singer and flutist Nathalie Joachim has made a powerful tribute to three pioneering Haitian female musicians—Carole Demesmin, Emerante de Pradines and Toto Bissainthe—weaving together their voices, stories and traditional Haitian folk music traditions.
6:00pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can [Club B10]
World premieres by Anna Clyne, Nick Dunston, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Aeryn Santillan.
Battle of the Solos! The Bang on a Can All-Stars go head to head in performances of The Pandemic Solos. Cozy up for more earth shattering performances! On clarinet, bass clarinet and sax, Ken Thomson plays new works by AnnaClyne, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Aeryn Santillan. Arlen Hlusko performs the moving Why Did They Kill Sandra Bland? by Daniel Bernard Roumain and Robert Black premieres fellow bass player Nick Dunston’s high energy Fainting Is Down, Whooshing is Up.
6:00pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play “The Pandemic Solos”, commissioned by Bang on a Can [Hunter Center]
World premieres by Leila Adu, Jeffrey Brooks, Sophie Cash, Florent Ghys, Trevor Weston. Crank it up with Mark Stewart as he plays 3 new works for electric guitar by Leila Adu, Jeffrey Brooks and Trevor Weston. Vicky Chow plays and sings Sophie Cash’s Homecoming, and David Cossin hits hard in Florent Ghys’ RYB.
7:30pm [Hunter Center]
KRONOS QUARTET plays music by Nicole Lizee, Terry Riley*, Soo Yeon Lyuh, Bryce Dessner, Sky Macklay*, Michael Gordon (*world premiere)
Kronos Koncert #2!
9:00pm
MAZZ SWIFT [Club B10]
Inspiringly inventive composer-performer Mazz Swift performs a solo set, featuring her unique blend of avant-violin and voice. Prepare to be mesmerized.
9:00pm
SOO-YEON LYUH plays music for the Haegum [The Chalet]
Composer-performer Soo-Yeon Lyuh brings this Korean folk instrument into the 21st century with a combination of new and traditional performance techniques. Kirsten Warfield joins on trombone.
10:00pm
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS play TERRY RILEY, Autodreamographical Tales [Hunter Center]
Terry Riley’s practice of writing down his dreams in a personal journal became the basis for Autodreamographical Tales—a wildly unique creation from one of America’s most iconic composers. The songs offer an uncommonly special connection with Terry. Plus—Terry will be with us to introduce the performance, virtually, through the magic of a live video link.
Information on Accommodations: www.massmoca.org/visit/stay
Watch the Trailer: bit.ly/LOUDWeekend
Read the New York Times Review
LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA concludes our 19th annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a professional development program led by today’s pioneers of experimental music for young composers and performers selected from an international applicant pool, which ran from July 12-29, 2021.
Bang on a Can Festival performance fellows 2021: Camellia Aftahi, Andrew Anderson, Emma Antonides, Raina Arnett, Hansol Choi, Luke Ellard, Amir Farsi, Annaliese Kowert, Riley Palmer, Alexandrea Richard, Julian Velasco, Yifei Xu, Alexander “Sasha” Yakub.
Lead Support for LOUD Weekend and the Summer Festival @ MASS MoCA provided by the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation and the National Endowment for Arts.