News

The All-Stars perform the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto in Portugal in June!

Ryuichi Sakamoto “was arguably the best-known and most successful Japanese musician in the world.” (Peter Tasker, Nikkei Asia)  Now Bang on a Can All-Stars offer their realization 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.

June 20 – Braga, Teatro Circo

June 22 – Lisbon, Sintra Festival

Sound and movement animate the glorious halls, gardens, and medieval archways of The Met Cloisters in Michael Gordon‘s The Forest of Metal Objects, a newly commissioned site-specific work. Created in collaboration with the renowned choreographer-directors Paul Lazar and Annie-B Parson, this vibrant procession for sixteen percussionists and six actors features a unique sonic landscape of cymbals, gongs, vibraphones, and specially tuned sheets of aluminum. Join us to see (and hear) The Met Cloisters transformed like never before!

More info

LOUD Weekend – where renowned special guests, Bang on a Can faculty, and young players perform throughout MoCA’s campus in a series of playful and heady collisions of jazz, classical, rock, and beyond.

Fueled by more than three decades of marathon concerts, Long Play Festival in Brooklyn and countless world tours and staged productions, Bang on a Can’s LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA is a fully loaded, three-day, eclectic super-mix of creative, experimental, and unusual music.

Performers include – Bang on a Can All-Stars, So Percussion, Nathalie Joachim, Steven Schick, Wolf Eyes, DJ Maria Chavez, David Byrd-Marrow, Vicky Chow, David Cossin, Arlen Hlusko, Nick Photinos, Todd Reynolds, Maya Stone, Ken Thomson, and the summer festival performance fellows.

They’ll be playing the music of composers – Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Steve Reich, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jeffrey Brooks, Ted Hearne,  Tamar Muskal, Gemma Peacocke, Jason Treuting, Trevor Weston, and the 2025 summer festival composition fellows: Che Buford, Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, Rebecca Galian Castello, Stephen Jackson, Jessie Leov, Kyle Rivera, Filippa Westerberg, and Tymon Zgorzelski

Additional artists and details to be announced!

More info and tickets

Thank you for coming to Long Play!

We are reveling in the incredible level of artistry, creativity, and community we experienced together this weekend.

Here at Bang on a Can headquarters, we know our audience is the BEST, and we are so grateful.

If you attended the festival, we would love to hear YOUR thoughts, impressions, and highlights! Please use this Feedback form; we want to hear it all!

If you had fun or heard something challenging, new, and exciting, help us ensure we can keep doing this work! DONATE here to keep Long Play alive! 

We would love to see your posts! Please tag us: @bangonacan #longplayfestival

Thank you again, and see you soon. (LOUD Weekend is next!)

A Supercharged Musical Ride through Right Now 
3 Days | 50+ concerts throughout Brooklyn

“Long Play…is already the most important classical music festival in New York City.”
—The New York Times

Bang on a Can announces the 4th year of Long Play, a three-day destination music festival, presented from Friday, May 2 through Sunday, May 4, 2025. Featuring 50+ concerts (a current list of artists is here, + more to come soon!), Long Play also showcases a dense network of inventive music venues in Brooklyn – with performances at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Roulette, Pioneer Works, Public Records, BRIC, The Space at Irondale, the Church of St Luke and St Matthew, ISSUE Project Room, Fort Greene Park, and more brought to you by Bang on a Can!

More info, artists, tickets

On May 15 at the Barbican Center in London, we are celebrating Terry Riley‘s 90th birthday with a mesmerising tribute featuring  Bang on a Can All-Stars, and special guests.

Terry Riley is a trailblazer of Minimalism, influencing generations of composers and musicians. A Rainbow in Curved Air and In C have defined the genre, captivating audiences since their inception.

Marking his 90th birthday,  the Bang on a Can All-Stars will present a stunning new arrangement of A Rainbow in Curved Air, arranged by Gyan Riley, blending the essence of Terry Riley’s visionary sound with fresh interpretations. The evening culminates in a powerful performance of Riley’s masterpiece In C, brought to life by an all-star cast of musicians, promising an evening of mesmerizing rhythms and timeless melodies.

More info

Julia Wolfe’s Her Story will be performed by Lorelei Ensemble and the National Symphony, conducted by Marion Alsop, from Feb 27 and March 1, in Washington DC!

Stage direction by Anne Kauffman, scenic design by Jeff Sugg, and production by Bang on a Can.

[Her Story] has a ferocity that is literally written into the score, but also an absence of resolution as it looks back to suffrage with one wary eye toward the future steps this country still needs to take for something resembling true equality.
— The New York Times, September 2022

More info and tickets

This summer marks our fifth annual workshop for music critics and journalists! Bang on a Can, our special guest faculty, John Schaefer and Terrance McKnight, and 6 writers in the early stages of their careers will gather at MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA) to explore the role of criticism and journalism in today’s dynamic contemporary music scene. Our aim is to help writers generate a vocabulary, syntax, and context that is most useful for readers/ listeners and to make modern music and criticism more accessible, welcoming, and exciting to all audiences.

More info and online applications

Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer will performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval in the Netherlands and Germany this month!

Feb 14 – Tivoli Vredenberg, Utrecht, Netherlands

Feb 15 – Amare, Den Haag, Netherlands

Feb 17 – Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Germany

See our EVENTS page for all the details!

David Lang’s “before and after nature” receives its world premiere on Sat, Feb 1 at Stanford Live, performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Image from the video art for this piece by Tal Rosner.

Get tickets.