Julia Wolfe: Flower Power
Featuring the Bang on a Can All-Stars & Orchestra

“In Flower Power, [Wolfe] looks for hope, returning to the epoch of three decades ago, when the zeitgeist for change was in turning people on rather than turning them off, a time meant for new myths.” – Los Angeles Times.

“a work whose massive structure and dynamic arrangement reflected the disparate forces colliding in the ’60s” – LA Weekly

Flower Power is 35-minute musical and visual exploration about optimism, idealism, psychedelia, breaking with convention, and a little bit of love and peace. Julia writes: “My recent large-scale works have addressed important moments in American history. The same is true for Flower Power, though it has no text. As a post-60s child, I experienced the afterglow of the 1960s revolution. And the after-ring was still resounding in the late 1970s. There was a sense that a better world was possible. In the strange moment we are in now, ‘when all the world is a hopeless jumble,’ I think about that remarkable turning point in American history, and in American music – a time of new ideas, and hope. Flower Power draws on my memory of this political and artistic time period, harnessing the energy and power of liberation and activism.”

Flower Power combines the rock-infused compositional style Wolfe developed with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the force of a full orchestra, and visual accompaniment by Jeff Sugg, who previously collaborated with Wolfe on her works Fire in my mouth and Anthracite Fields.

Flower Power was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Production credits

Jeff Sugg – production design
Mark Grey – sound design/engineer
Andrew Cotton – sound design/engineer

Performance info

First performance: John Adams, conductor, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the Bang on a Can All-Stars; January 18-19, 2020; Walt Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA

Additional performances by the BBC Concert Orchestra, RTE Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Audio

Julia Wolfe’s Flower Power, performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and LAPhil.

Video

Score

Preview the Flower Power score on Issuu

Press

Booking and Technical info

More Information