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Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians

This is it!  Downtown New York experimental music’s first crossover hit.  When it premiered in 1976 it was immediately clear that it would turn our world around.  The music joyously links so many different communities – process music, jazz, ambient, and world music all have a home in this piece – you hear throughout how Reich honors and extends their influences. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiere their own new and dramatic version of this classic work, joined by an ever-expanding community of New York luminary musicians.

Bang on a Can All-Stars play Ryuichi Sakamoto, 1996

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.

Bang on a Can All-Stars website