“Heard together — in pandemic-enforced isolation, no less — the three pieces [from The Become Trilogy] offer an intoxicating introduction to Mr. Adams’s psychoacoustic geology of the spirit. Together with his illuminating memoir, they make fine travel companions in this year of going nowhere.”
Read more from the New York Times feature.
Celebrate the release of Kaki King's Cantaloupe debut Modern Yesterdays with a FREE streamed concert.
Join Georgia Tech Arts on Saturday, October 24, 2020 at 8 p.m. EST as it streams the world premiere concert of Modern Yesterdays, the newest album from celebrated composer and guitarist Kaki King, recorded at the Ferst Center for the Arts.
Register now to receive more details as they are announced! https://gatech.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6F15S2P1R6Gx55j
Bang on a Can will present an ALL LIVE online Bang on a Can Marathon on Sunday, August 16, 2020 from 3pm-9pm ET. The Marathon will be streamed at marathon2020.bangonacan.org, featuring 24 LIVE performances from musicians' homes in NYC and around the country. We kick off at 3pm with the singular and extraordinary Wu Man, one of the world’s foremost Pipa players and close off with György Ligeti’s diabolical etude ‘The Devil’s Staircase’, performed by piano superstar Jeremy Denk. Don’t miss a rare solo performance by jazz legend Oliver Lake, 11 world premieres commissioned especially for the day, as well as music and performances by Leyla McCalla, Kaki King, Annea Lockwood, Craig Taborn, Missy Mazzoli, Tyondai Braxton and many more greats.
Performance schedule (Set times are approximate)
3:00
Wu Man
Nicole Mitchell New Work (world premiere) performed by Ken Thomson
Dobrinka Tabakova Simple Prayer for Complex Times (world premiere) performed by Vicky Chow
Tyondai Braxton
4:00
Missy Mazzoli Vespers for Violin (solo) performed by Olivia De Prato
Teddy Abrams New Work (world premiere) performed by himself
Fjóla Evans New Work (world premiere) performed by Kendall Williams
Jeffrey Brooks Santuario (world premiere) performed by Mark Stewart
Shara Nova New Work (world premiere) performed by herself
5:00
Brad Lubman New Work (world premiere) performed by Lauren Radnofsky
Leyla McCalla
Jacob Cooper Expiation (edit) performed by Jodie Landau
Kaki King
Scott Wollschleger Tiny Oblivion performed by Karl Larson
6:00
Rajna Swaminathan New Work (world premiere) performed by herself
Nick Dunston Fainting Is Down, Whooshing is Up (world premiere) performed by Robert Black
Phil Kline The Best Words performed by Theo Bleckmann with Dan Tepfer/Todd Reynolds
Marcos Balter ...and also a fountain performed by Rebekah Heller
7:00
Oliver Lake
Annea Lockwood RCSC performed by Sarah Cahill
Paola Prestini From the Bones to the Fossils performed by Jeffrey Zeigler
Craig Taborn
8:00
Annika Socolofsky Bolder (world premiere) performed by Arlen Hlusko
Samson Young Super Dark Energy (world premiere) performed by David Cossin
György Ligeti The Devil's Staircase performed by Jeremy Denk
In fraught times like these, everyone needs to step up for what's right. We extend our deepest condolences to George Floyd’s family, friends, and the larger Minneapolis community, and we stand in solidarity with our black colleagues, fellow musicians, and loved ones across the country and around the world.
Please join us in donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and let's work together to actualize racial justice and positive change for the future.
Bang on a Can will present an ALL LIVE online Bang on a Can Marathon on Sunday, May 3, 2020 from 3pm-9pm ET. The Marathon will be streamed at marathon2020.bangonacan.org, featuring 26 LIVE performances from musicians' homes in NYC and around the country. The concert begins with a performance by Meredith Monk at 3pm and concludes with a performance by Bang on a Can All-Star pianist Vicky Chow playing John Adams’ China Gates. Additional highlights include Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint performed by flutist Claire Chase, performances by Vijay Iyer, Maya Beiser, Shara Nova, Nathalie Joachim, and many more. The 6-hour live Marathon will be hosted by Bang on a Can Co-Founders andArtistic Directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe.
Set times are approximate
3:00
Meredith Monk
Cassie Wieland’s Heart performed by Adam Holmes
Robert Honstein’s Orison performed by Ashley Bathgate
Vijay Iyer
4:00
Anna Clyne’s Rapture performed by Eileen Mack
George Lewis’ Voyager
Shara Nova – New Work (world premiere)
Adam Cuthbért
5:00
Shelley Washington’s Black Mary performed by Ken Thomson
Martin Bresnick’s Ishi’s Song performed by Lisa Moore
Ken Thomson – New Work (world premiere) performed by Robert Black
Nathalie Joachim
David T. Little’s Hellhound performed by Maya Beiser
6:00
Miya Masaoka’s music for ichi-ten-kin, or one string koto
Meara O’Reilly
Vinko Globokar’s Toucher performed by Steven Schick
Zoë Keating
7:00
Moor Mother
Philip Glass’ “Knee Play 2” from Einstein on the Beach performed by Tim Fain
Mark Stewart’s To Whom it May Concern: Thank You
Mary Halvorson
8:00
Molly Joyce – New Work (world premiere) performed by David Cossin
Ian Chang
Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint performed by Claire Chase
Dai Wei’s Songs for Shades of Crimson (world premiere) performed by Todd Reynolds
John Adams’ China Gates performed by Vicky Chow
With concert halls and opera houses closed around the world as part of bans on large gatherings aimed at curbing the coronavirus outbreak, what are homebound classical critics to do? Listen to favorite recordings of the music they were scheduled to hear live, of course! Enjoy.
for an exclusive New York Times preview of Meredith Monk's “Double Fiesta,” from her forthcoming album MEMORY GAME with the Bang on a Can All-Stars.
The Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, has announced its expanded 2020 lineup, which will include a headlining set from punk godmother Patti Smith and her band, who will play and participate in the literary program.
The three-day fest (March 26-29) focused on the avant garde, the unexpected and the surprising will pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of the invention of the Theremin, with Rob Schwimmer, a master of the eerie instrument leading a trio featuring pianist Uri Caine and violinist Mark Feldman in a 20th anniversary celebration of their album Theremin Noir.
Meredith Monk will perform her evening-length song series MEMORY GAME with her Vocal Ensemble and the Bang on a Can All-Stars to close out the weekend. Stay tuned for more details!
There was a time, within living memory for many of us, when composers, critics, and listeners could have knock-down, drag-out fights (or the somewhat more genteel, but still vehement, classical-music equivalent) about which of the many contemporary “isms” was the true musical language of our time...
“This piece is all about space,” says composer John Luther Adams. “Space has become, perhaps, the fundamentally compositional element in my music — so much so that with Become Desert, I didn't begin sketching notes. I didn't think about harmonies, or tempos, or line, or anything specific until I had the floor plan. Until I knew, not only what are the instruments, but where are the instruments. In this case, we have five instrumental choirs, five distinctly separate ensembles. Become Ocean had three. That seemed to work pretty well, but I wanted to hear a fuller space, both [in] surround and vertically.”
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY: The 2019 Bard SummerScape festival takes a contemporary look at Hollywood’s Golden Age in Acquanetta, a visual and musical tour-de-force inspired by the eponymous B-movie star with a mysterious past.
Combining theater, opera, and film in a haunting meditation on identity, transformation, stereotypes, and typecasting from composer and Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon and his longtime collaborator, librettist Deborah Artman, Acquanetta originally premiered at the PROTOTYPE Festival, where it was a New York Times and New York magazine “Critics’ Pick” and one of the New York Classical Review’s “Top Ten Performances of 2018.”
To celebrate the official July 19 release of the Acquanetta recording on Cantaloupe Music, Bard will host a pre-release party on Friday, July 12.
Acquanetta is produced by Beth Morrison Projects, with scenic design by Lucille Lortel Award-nominee Amy Rubin and video design by Joshua Higgason.
David Lang returns to LA Opera for the first time since his spellbinding anatomy theater, with baritone Rod Gilfry in a tour-de-force performance of a role he created at the work’s premiere at the pathbreaking BAM Next Wave Festival, produced by Bang on a Can.
"Boldly unconventional… engrossingly ambiguous. Mr. Lang captures the conflicted emotional currents of the story in his elusive, austere music." – The New York Times
This season, the New York Philharmonic, led by their new Music Director Jaap van Zweden, examines New York City's roots as a destination of immigrants during New York Stories: Threads of Our City. The centerpiece for the season is the world premiere, on January 24–26, of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth, commissioned by the orchestra, Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley; the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Wolfe's music focuses on the garment industry in New York City at the turn of the century — specifically the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed 146 garment workers, most of them young, female immigrants. The immersive, multimedia performance features the Philharmonic debut of the 36 women of the chamber choir The Crossing, directed by Donald Nally, as well as the Philharmonic debut of Jeff Sugg as scenic, lighting, video, and projection designer.
Tomoko Mukaiyama on piano for the 2016 premiere of The Unchanging Sea, with Pablo Rus Broseta conducting the Seattle Symphony.
Co-commissioned and performed by the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Pablo Rus Broseta and featuring piano soloist Tomoko Mukaiyama, The Unchanging Sea flows from Michael Gordon’s fascination with our connection to our watery source, in all its turbulence, majesty and mystery. While the title and visual material originate with a 1910 short film by silent era director D.W. Griffith, Bill Morrison’s film sources 17 obscure or lost titles dealing with sea travel, including footage shot in Seattle in 1897, when the S.S. Willamette sailed out of Puget Sound at the height of the gold rush.
The Unchanging Sea is a double-disc CD + DVD package that includes the companion piece Beijing Harmony, also performed by the Seattle Symphony. Inspired by a visit to the Echo Wall at Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, Gordon “imagined that the sound would bounce off the stone floors and buildings to create a fanfare of echoes — an acoustical rebounding and ringing that would slowly grow in zeal and fierceness.”
BANG ON A CAN MARATHON
@ NYU Skirball Center
Sunday, May 13, 2018, 12-10pm
10 hours of FREE Live Music!
Bang on a Can returns to downtown Manhattan with its annual incomparable super-mix of boundary-busting music from around the corner and around the world! The 2018 Bang on a Can Marathon will feature 10 hours of rare performances by some of the most innovative musicians of our time, side-by-side with some of today’s most pioneering young artists.
HIghlights include Terry Riley's Autodreamographical Tales, performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Terry Riley (voice). The piece was inspired by a dream diary Riley kept in 1987, and flows in and out of Indian raga, New Age music and bluesy textures. Other highlights include Vicky Chow's performance of Michael Gordon's Sonatra; Stephin Merritt's set with cellist Sam Davol, his Magnetic Fields bandmate; and performances by the Flux Quartet, Contemporaneous and Xenia Rubinos.
More information is available at Bang on a Can's official website, and at NYU Skirball online.
Over the course of a decade, Bang on a Can founding composer Michael Gordon has
collaborated with the world-renowned Kronos Quartet on a series of provocative works that
have sought to stretch, bend and otherwise reshape the boundaries of modern classical
music. Clouded Yellow assembles these works for the first time, perfectly encapsulating the
breadth and complexity of this long-standing creative partnership. On May 5, Kronos and
Gordon celebrate the album’s release with an intimate performance at Joe’s Pub.
Clouded Yellow will be available on CD and all digital services on May 4.
Ticket Price: $40.00 - $70.00
Doors at 6PM & 9PM
Shows at 7PM & 9:30PM