Bang on a Can to Set Out on Simultaneous Tours to Europe, China and Mexico, May 2013

By: Apr. 26, 2013
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Bang on a Can goes beyond borders in May, with the Bang on a Can All-Stars on tour performing in Brugge, Belgium (Concertgebouw, May 7 and 9); London, England (Barbican Centre, May 11); Uppsala, Sweden (Uppsala Konsert & Kongress, May 13); Norwich, England (Norfolk-Norwich Festival, May 15); and in their Icelandic debut in Reykjavik (Reykjavik Arts Festival, May 17).

In addition, Bang on a Can brings its polyrhythmic virtuosity and versatility to the Beijing Modern Music Festival in China, celebrating the breadth of the genre-busting Bang on a Can sound with two concerts of music by Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe: May 18 (China National Center for the Performing Arts) and May 20 (Central Conservatory of Music), performed by the Bang on a Can Festival Ensemble - cutting-edge performers on the New York new music scene from the annual Bang on a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA.

This May, Bang on a Can is producing three simultaneous international touring programs: in Europe featuring the renowned Bang on a Can All-Stars; in Beijing, China featuring the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra combined with a Festival Ensemble of musicians culled from its annual Summer Festival at Mass MoCA, and in Mexico featuring its renegade mobile ensemble Asphalt Orchestra.

Over the last 25 years, Bang on a Can has been a leading international producer of American contemporary music. Since shortly after its inception in 1987 Bang on a Can has been producing international events annually, bringing the spirit of its renowned Marathon programs abroad to festivals and venues worldwide. The Bang on a Can All-Stars, formed in 1992, were designed in part as a way of delivering Bang on a Can's curatorial vision to audiences far from its New York shores. Over the last 20 years, the All-Stars have appeared annually throughout Europe's most prestigious concert halls and festivals, as well as in Australia and Asia, and have toured three times to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

The extent of Bang on a Can's international activities is not only rooted in Bang on a Can All-Stars' performances. Bang on a Can's acclaimed staged productions also have international roots. Highlights include the Gordon/Lang/Wolfe collaboration The Carbon Copy Building, which was commissioned by and premiered at the Settembre Musica Festival in Turin, Italy in 1999; Lost Objects which was commissioned by and premiered at the Dresden Music Festival in 2001; and Field Recordings which was co-commissioned by and premiered at the Barbican Centre, London in 2012.

Bang on a Can All-Stars Tour:
At the Concertgebouw in Brugge, Belgium on May 7 at 9pm, the All-Stars perform the Belgian premieres of Michael Gordon's shimmering For Madelineand Louis Andriessen's Life ("a kind of contemporary Pictures at an Exhibition," according to the composer, accompanied by four short films by Dutch video artist Marijke van Warmerdam), as well as David Lang's kaleidoscopic sunray, Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint for guitar and pre-recorded tape, and his double rock quintet, 2x5. Gordon, Lang, and Andriessen's works are included on the Bang on a Can All-Stars' critically acclaimed 2012 album Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, which was released by Cantaloupe Music in celebration of Bang on a Can's 25th birthday year.

On May 9 at 8pm the All-Stars and mesmerizing Norwegian vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval reunite for the Belgian (and European) premiere of Julia Wolfe's Steel Hammer at the Concertgebouw. Premiered in the US to critical acclaim, Steel Hammer is Wolfe's evening length art ballad based on the John Henry legend. Culling from over 200 versions of the legend, Wolfe weaves the contradictory facts to tell the story of the story. The work was runner-up for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and stretches the standard instrumentation of Bang on a Can All-Stars with wooden bones, mountain dulcimer, banjo, and more, to evoke the rich instrumental colors of Appalachia.

Following the All-Stars 8pm performance of Steel Hammer, the group offers a "late night" 10pm set of their acclaimed live arrangements of Brian Eno'sMusic for Airports. Since the All-Stars' celebrated 1998 recording of Brian Eno: Music for Airports (Universal), they have brought this work to live audiences around the globe with concerts at many of the most prestigious international festivals and venues including Lincoln Center, UCLA Live, Royal Festival Hall in London, Sydney Opera House, the Holland Festival, and even public performances at Brussels International Airport, Schipol Airport in Holland, John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, and more.

In London at the Barbican Centre on May 11, the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval give the UK premiere of Wolfe's Steel Hammer alongside Terry Riley's Tread on the Trail. Steel Hammer will have its Swedish premiere on May 13 in Uppsala, Sweden at the Uppsala Konzert & Kongress, and on May 15, the All-Stars are back in the UK for the Norfolk-Norwich Festival, where they reprise their May 7 program.

On May 17, the All-Stars make their Icelandic debut in Reykjavik at the Reykjavik Arts Festival, with their ongoing major multimedia project Field Recordings featuring new works by Tyondai Braxton, Mira Calix, Anna Clyne, Florent Ghys, Michael Gordon, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Christian Marclay, Todd Reynolds, Julia Wolfe, and Nick Zammuto.

For Field Recordings, Bang on a Can asked fourteen composers (and counting) to go into the field of recorded sound itself - to find something old or record something new, and to respond with their own music, in dialogue with what they found. Using archival audio, found sound and video, Field Recordings builds a bridge between the seen and the unseen, the present and absent, the present and the past, channeled through Bang on a Can All-Stars.

The project continues a tradition established over the last 135 years of recorded sound - Bartók and Kodály took recording devices into the hills of Central Europe and modern music was never the same; rock and roll's lineage comes from artists revealed to the world by the Lomaxes, the Seegers, and other archivists; hip-hop culture democratized sampling; and popular music today is a form of musique concrète, the voices and rhythms of the past mixing with the sound of machinery and electronics.

Bang on a Can Sound at the Beijing Modern Music Festival:
Bang on a Can dispatches a Bang on a Can Festival Ensemble (Ashley Smith, clarinet; Todd Reynolds, violin; Jessica Schmitz, flute; Ellery Trafford, percussion; Mariel Roberts, cello; David Friend, piano) to China for two concerts celebrating core repertoire by co-founders and artistic directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe which combines classical virtuosity with the power and energy of orchestra, rock, jazz, and experimental tradition.

The first concert on May 18 is large-scale celebration, combining orchestral tradition with soloistic virtuosity. Taking place at the incredible China National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the program features the Festival Ensemble joining forces with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra for David Lang's pierced, Michael Gordon's Rewriting Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, and a world premiere arrangement of Julia Wolfe's Big Beautiful Dark and Scary for six soloists and orchestra.

The second concert on May 20 is an explosive program of amplified chamber works at the Concert Hall of the Central Conservatory of Music, including Julia Wolfe's Girlfriend, David Lang's sweet air and these broken wings, and Michael Gordon's ACDC and Light Is Calling.

Asphalt Orchestra in Mexico:
Bang on a Can's polymorphic avant-marching band Asphalt Orchestra will make its Mexican debut in performances from May 24-27, 2013, sponsored by the US Embassy in Mexico City. Asphalt's guerilla outdoor shows spring jazz, prog-rock, and world music on the transient masses, featuring tunes written for the band by luminaries including David Byrne and Annie Clark, Goran Bregovic, Tatsuya Yoshida and more. These signature radical outdoor extravaganzas, choreographed by Susan Marshall and Mark DeChiazza, capture the "sheer visceral power" of the "Sousa on Crack" marching band (New York Times), grabbing the focus of expecting audiences and unexpecting bystanders alike.

About Bang on a Can:
Bang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Since its first Marathon concert in 1987, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found. With adventurous programs, it commissions new composers, performs, presents, and records new work, develops new audiences, and educates the musicians of the future. Bang on a Can is building a world in which powerful new musical ideas flow freely across all genres and borders.

Bang on a Can celebrated 25 years during the 2011-2012 season, having grown from a one-day New York-based Marathon concert (on Mother's Day in 1987 in a SoHo art gallery) to a multi-faceted performing arts organization with a broad range of year-round international activities. "When we started Bang on a Can in 1987, in an art gallery in SoHo, we never imagined that our one-day, 12-hour marathon festival of mostly unknown music would morph into a giant international organization dedicated to the support of experimental music, wherever we would find it," write Bang on a Can Co-Founders Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. "But it has, and we are so gratified to be still hard at work, all these years later. The reason is really clear to us - we started this organization because we believed that making new music is a utopian act-that people needed to hear this music and they needed to hear it presented in the most persuasive way, with the best players, with the best programs, for the best listeners, in the best context. Our commitment to changing the environment for this music has kept us busy and growing for the last 25 years, and we are not done yet."

Current projects include 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 led by today's pioneers of experimental music; Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can's extreme street band that offers mobile performances re-contextualizing unusual music; Found Sound Nation, a new technology-based musical outreach program now partnering with the State Department of the United States of America to createOneBeat, a revolutionary, post-political residency program that uses music to bridge the gulf between young American musicians and young musicians from developing countries; cross-disciplinary collaborations and projects with DJs, visual artists, choreographers, filmmakers and more. Each new program has evolved to answer specific challenges faced by today's musicians, composers and audiences, in order to make innovative music widely accessible and wildly received. Bang on a Can's inventive 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.

Bang on a Can on Tour (More information: www.bangonacan.org/events/upcoming)

TOUR DATES:

May 7 & 9, 2013
Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval | Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe plus music from Big Beautiful Dark and Scary and Louis Andriessen, Brian Eno, Steve Reich
Concertgebouw | Brugge, Belgium
Information: http://www.concertgebouw.be/Index.php?newlang=en

May 11, 2013
Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval | Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe
Barbican Centre | London, UK
Information: http://www.barbican.org.uk/

May 13, 2013
Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval | Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe
Uppsala Konsert & Kongress | Uppsala, Sweden
Information: http://www.ukk.se/In-English/

May 15, 2013
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by David Lang, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich
Norfolk-Norwich Festival | Norwich, UK
Information: www.nnfestival.org.uk/festival/all-events/bang-on-a-can-all-stars

May 17, 2013
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Field Recordings
Reykjavik Arts Festival | Reykjavik, Iceland
Information: www.listahatid.is/2013/en

May 18, 2013
The Bang on a Can Sound @ Beijing Modern Music Festival
China National Center for the Performing Arts | Beijing, China
Information: http://bangonacan.org/bang_on_a_can_sound

May 20, 2013
The Bang on a Can Sound @ Beijing Modern Music Festival
Central Conservatory of Music | Beijing, China
Information: http://bangonacan.org/bang_on_a_can_sound

May 24-27, 2013
Asphalt Orchestra | Outdoor Performances
Sponsored by the US Embassy in Mexico City | Mexico City, MX
Further information TBA at: http://bangonacan.org/events

Photo Credit: Stephanie Berger



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