Lincoln Center Celebrates Bang on a Can's 25th Birthday

Lincoln Center will celebrate the 25th birthday of New York's tirelessly inventive new music institution Bang on a Can with musical fireworks in an extraordinary three-part program that will include a U.S. and a New York premiere on Saturday, April 28, at 7 PM in Alice Tully Hall. Over the years, beginning with the Bang on a Can Marathon in 1994, Lincoln Center has regularly presented Bang on a Can performances.

Tickets: Tickets go on sale on February 16, priced at $35, $45, and $50. Tickets will be available online at LincolnCenter.org, by calling CenterCharge at 212-721-6500 or by visiting the Alice Tully Hall box office on Broadway and 65th Street. Ticket prices are subject to change.

The April 28 concert begins at 7 PM with a blend of ancient tradition and modern technology when Gamelan Galak Tika performs Tire Fire, its signature piece, composed in 1995 by its director - composer/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn, a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. The piece combines the shimmering beauty of traditional Balinese gamelan with the virtuosity and raw power of electric guitars, climaxing in a blast of sonic energy.

The exuberant Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can's radical street band, will then perform the New York premiere of a new work by composer/percussionist Tatsuya Yoshida, founder and primary force behind the renowned progressive rock duo Ruins. Tatsuya Yoshida will perform live with the band.

Asphalt Orchestra will be followed by the U.S. premiere of Field Recordings, with specially commissioned new music by some of the world's most questioning musical thinkers from the indie pop world (Tyondai Braxton, Florent Ghys, Nick Zammuto from The Books), the art world (Christian Marclay), electronica (Mira Calix) and experimental classical (Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Evan Ziporyn), performed by the renowned electric chamber group, the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Joining them for the concert will be Mira Calix, Christian Marclay, and Nick Zammuto. Using film, found sound, and archival audio and video, Field Recordings builds a bridge between the seen and the unseen, the present and absent, the present and the past – a concert enhanced by conceptual set designer Jim Findlay.

BNY Mellon is a Proud Sponsor of Great Performers

According to Kenny Savelson, Executive Director of Bang on a Can, "Field Recordings, as much a mystery as a concert, is a kind of ghost story. The ghosts aren't the physical presence of people gone before, but the ghosts of sounds, images, ideas, and voices. Each composer has been asked to find and interact with something recorded before, using the power of music made right in front of us to reach out to other things not present. Using film, found sound and archival audio and video, Field Recordings builds a bridge between the seen and the unseen, the present and absent, the present and the past.

Over the past 25 years Bang on a Can (BOAC) has enjoyed a long relationship with Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, beginning with the BOAC Marathons in Alice Tully Hall, 1994-1997. The Bang on Can All-Stars also performed at Lincoln Center several times. Highlights include March 1998, when the All-Stars premiered its arrangements of Brian Eno's Music for Airports; they returned in March 1999 to collaborate with Meredith Monk; February 2002, with Don Byron and Kyaw Kyaw Naing; May 2004, with Terry Riley as part of the Andriessen Festival, Sonic Evolutions; and in March 2009, with Glenn Kotche and a new work by Michael Gordon commissioned by Lincoln Center (as well as works by David Lang and Julia Wolfe) as part of the festival celebrating the re-opening of Alice Tully Hall.

More recently, Lincoln Center Out of Doors presented Asphalt Orchestra over 10 packed nights in the summers of 2009 and 2010.

BOAC is celebrating its 25th birthday in 2011-2012 with performances around the world featuring an array of acclaimed projects from past years, plus brand new adventures. Bang on a Can performances this season take place in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, London, Glasgow, various cities in Germany and Russia, and in many places off the beaten path in between.

Formed in 1987 by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, Bang on a Can is dedicated to commissioning, performing, creating, presenting and recording contemporary music. With an ear for the new, the unknown and the unconventional, Bang on a Can strives to expose exciting and innovative music as broadly and accessibly as possible to new audiences worldwide. Through its Summer Festival, Bang on a Can hopes to bring this energy and passion for innovation to a younger generation of composers and players.

Projects include festival concerts and the annual Bang on a Can Marathon; The People's Commissioning Fund, a membership program to commission emerging composers; the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who tour to major festivals and concert venues around the world every year; recording projects; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival - a professional development program for young composers and performers; Found Sound Nation, a promising new technology-based musical outreach program into NYC schools; cross-disciplinary collaborations and projects with DJs, visual artists, choreographers, filmmakers and more; and Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can's new extreme street band that offers mobile performances recontextualizing unusual music, taking it to neighborhoods across New York City and beyond to the world at large. Bang on a Can's innovative and aggressive approach to programming and presentation has created a large and vibrant international audience made up of people of all ages who are rediscovering the value of contemporary music. For more information, visit www.bangonacan.org.

Asphalt Orchestra is a radical new street band that brings ambitious processional music to the mobile masses. Created by the founders of Bang on a Can, Asphalt Orchestra unleashes innovative music from concert halls, rock clubs and jazz basements and takes it to the streets and beyond. The band brings together some of the most exciting rock, jazz and classical players in New York City.

Asphalt Orchestra has two lives: as an outdoor guerrilla musical force choreographed by Susan Marshall and Mark DeChiazza, and as "Unpack the Elephant," the indoor experience, directed by Mark DeChiazza and Andrew Robinson. Elizabeth Hope Clancy is the group's wardrobe stylist.

They have performed throughout the east coast of the U.S. and Canada, at London's Barbican Centre, at the TED Women conference in Washington D.C., and more. Their repertoire ranges from music by pop wizard Björk, to jazz legend Charles Mingus, rock progressive Frank Zappa, Brazilian iconoclast songwriter Tom Zé, Zimbabwean provocateur Thomas Mapfumo, Swedish metal band Meshuggah, and new pieces written for the band by David Byrne and Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Yoko Ono, Goran Bregovic, Tyondai Braxton (Battles), and Stew and Heidi Rodewald (Broadway and Spike Lee's Passing Strange).

Asphalt Orchestra's debut album was released in 2010 by Cantaloupe Music. The group is touring its indoor and outdoor shows across the US and will return to Europe in Spring 2012. The group is co-directed by Ken Thomson and Jessica Schmitz. For more information, visit www.asphaltorchestra.com.

Gamelan Galak Tika has been at the forefront of innovative, cross-cultural music for Balinese gamelan since 1993. Led by composer Evan Ziporyn, Galak Tika has performed groundbreaking music at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM, several Bang on a Can Marathons, Southern Exposure, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and colleges throughout the Northeast. In 2005 the group toured Bali, performing at the Bali International Arts Festival, Kuta Beach, and numerous villages around the island. Galak Tika is dedicated to commissioning and performing new works by Balinese and American composers for gamelan and mixed ensembles of gamelan and Western instruments, as well as performing traditional Balinese music and dance. Recent projects have included the world premiere of Terry Riley's White Space Conflict (commissioned by the group), Christine Southworth's SuperCollider for electronic gamelan and Kronos Quartet (premiered at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival in 2010), Evan Ziporyn's Bayu Sabda Idep for gamelan and strings, and new works by Dewa Alit, Ramon Castillo, and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. Galak Tika has recorded for Airplane Ears, New World, and New Albion. The group plays on three complete sets of instruments. These include one traditional pelog set, one tuned in just intonation, and the newest collection, the completely electronic Gamelan Elektrika. "Galak Tika" is Bahasa Kawi (classical Javanese, a dialect of Sanskrit) for "intense togetherness." For more information, visit www.galaktika.org.

Tire Fire was the stunning finale of the 1995 Bang on a Can marathon at Alice Tully Hall; it has also been performed at John Adams' In Your Ear Festival at Zankel Hall and at the Bali International Arts Festival in Denpasar, Indonesia.

BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS:
(Ashley Bathgate, Cello; Robert Black, Bass; Vicky Chow, Piano; David Cossin, Percussion; Mark Stewart, electric guitar; Evan Ziporyn, clarinets)
Formed in 1992 by New York's renowned new-music collective Bang on a Can, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today's most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the All-Stars have shattered the definition of what concert music is today.

Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Burmese circle drum master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Tan Dun, DJ Spooky, and many more. The group's celebrated projects include their landmark recordings of Brian Eno's ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley's In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Don Byron, Iva Bittova, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett and others. 

Their newest project, Field Recordings, premiering in March-April 2012 in London and New York is a new evening-length concert including film, found sound and archival audio and video with specially commissioned new music and projections by some of the world's most questioning musical thinkers - from the indie pop world (Tyondai Braxton, Florent Ghys, Nick Zammuto from The Books), the art world (Christian Marclay), electronica (Mira Calix) and experimental classical (Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Evan Ziporyn). Recent project highlights include the world premiere, performances, and recording of Steve Reich's 2x5 including a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall; the group's multiple visits to China for the Beijing Music Festival and Hong Kong Arts Festival; the US tour and Carnegie Hall performance of Julia Wolfe's Steel Hammer, an evening-length staged concert with Trio Mediaeval; the October 2010 BAM Next Wave Festival performances of Evan Ziporyn's A House in Bali, a new dance-opera featuring the All-Stars with Balinese Gamelan; commissioned works by Louis Andriessen, Bill Frisell, Ryuichi Sakamoto and more. With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group's distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right.

The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music (www.cantaloupemusic.com) and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch. For up-to-date information regarding Bang on a Can programs, events, and CD releases, please visit www.bangonacan.org.