Founded by Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe as a one-day marathon concert in SoHo on Mother’s Day 1987, Bang on a Can has grown over the decades into one of the contemporary music world’s primary centers of gravity — though gravity might not be the right word. Evident and animate throughout the group’s own musical output, as well as its commissioning initiatives, residency programs, and not one but two annual festivals is an abiding belief in the creation of music as “a utopian act.”
…An air of defiant joy charged every moment of LOUD Weekend, like the black thunderheads that barged over the hills. If there’s a single word to describe this music, it could be one that doubles as a descriptor for the audience: curious.