David Lang News

The Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), led by Artistic Director Grant Gershon, presents an all-a cappella program of soaring Renaissance choral gems that promises to resonate in the sparkling acoustics of Disney Hall on Sunday, November 16, 2014, 7 pm. The Chorale, which is particularly adept at performing this musical style with crisp, clear intonation, performs William Byrd's Sing Joyfully, Josquin des Prez's Ave nobilissima creatura, John Taverner's Western Wind Mass, Thomas Tallis's If Ye Love Me and Orlando di Lasso's O Crux Splendidior, among other 16th and 17th century works.

Under the leadership of Music Director George Manahan, American Composers Orchestra (ACO) returns to Carnegie Hall for the 11th season of its Orchestra Underground series, which explores the orchestra as an elastic ensemble that can respond to composers' unhindered creativity. ACO's first performance this season, titled Orchestra Underground: Monk's Sphere, on Friday, November 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall is part of Meredith Monk's season-long residency as holder of Carnegie Hall's Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair. The program will include a performance of Monk's Night as well as world premieres of Clear Image by experimental rock-guitarist Ian Williams, Motormouth by A.J. McCaffrey, and My Brightest Garment by Theo Bleckmann (commissioned by Carnegie Hall). The concert will also include the New York premiere of Stalks, Hounds by Loren Loiacono. Theo Bleckmann and Ian Williams will join members of Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble as special guests for this exhilarating concert.

This fall, L.A. Dance Project, founded in 2012 by newly appointed Paris Opera Ballet director and former New York City Ballet principal Benjamin Millepied, made its New York debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as a part of the 2014 Next Wave Festival. With works by Millepied, Justin Peck, and William Forsythe, this west coast collective came in full force, demonstrating incredible creative genius and outstanding performance.

At long last, Benjamin Millipied's L.A. Dance Project premiered in New York City (his home among other creative homes) at BAM. The success of the October 17th program seemed to surprise the dancers themselves--sheepishly continuing to bow upon the audience's insistence.

A performance of Verdi's Requiem that is a tripartite collaboration highlights the 2014-15 season of Kent Tritle, called 'New York's reigning choral conductor' by The New York Times. In an event emblematic of Kent's multiple roles in the city's choral life, he will conduct a performance of the massive work by the Oratorio Society of New York, of which he is Music Director, and the Symphony and Symphonic Chorus of the Manhattan School of Music, where he is Director of Choral Activities, in the grand space of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where he is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist -- with a new choral configuration that features the more-than-250 singers on risers in the cathedral's Great Choir space.

The Mimesis Ensemble presents 'Beyond Boundaries,' a program featuring vocal works with a social commentary. The concert will explore songs from the 20th and 21st centuries which examine topics ranging from the ancient story of Gilgamesh, the Americanization of Japan in the 1850's to the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.

Applauded worldwide for its athleticism, kinetic artistry, and deep humanity, Doug Varone and Dancers returns to The Joyce Theater from December 2-7 with a program featuring a world premiere, a beloved revival, and a new solo performed by Doug Varone himself.

The Italian Academy hosts the inaugural concert of *The Stefan Wolpe Fund featuring world premieres and works by Charles Wuorinen, Jonathan Dawe, Matthew Greenbaum and William Anderson on Thursday, October 30th at 8pm. Also on the program, a New York premiere for string sextet by Charles Wuorinen. Featured artists: JACK Quartet, pianist Steven Beck, Vox n Plux, violist Miranda Cuckson and cellist Jay Campbell. This concert was produced by Zaidee Parkinson and Alanna Maharajh Stone with generous support from *The Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music.

This season, a new group of eighteen musicians -- some of the finest professional players in the world -- will join Ensemble ACJW, a two-year fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. Ensemble ACJW is designed to prepare young professional musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, and leadership. It offers performance opportunities, year-long partnerships within New York City public schools, and intensive professional development.

A series of four concerts plus a unique opera experience forms the core of Soundstreams' 2014/15 concert series. The events, which include several world premieres, feature collaborations between Canadian composers and performers and their counterparts from the U.K., United States, Russia, Brazil and Argentina. In addition to two concerts held at the beautiful Koerner Hall, Soundstreams will present work at two additional Toronto venues: Trinity-St. Paul's Centre and the new Theatre Centre on Queen Street West.

The first Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella series performance of the 2014/15 season showcases acclaimed ensemble So Percussion performing at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Tuesday, October 7, at 8 pm. The program features innovative works for percussion produced by two of Bang on a Can's co-founders, David Lang and Michael Gordon - Lang's the so-called laws of nature for four percussionists which was commissioned for and premiered by So Percussion, and Gordon's Timber, a piece played entirely on six 2x4 pieces of wood called simantras.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) today announced the participants of the third cycle of the BAM Professional Development Program (BAM PDP), led by BAM and the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland. The companies for this session represent mixed disciplines ranging from dance to theater to opera. Chosen by a BAM-convened panel, the organizations taking part in this session are Encompass New Opera Theatre, Satellite Collective, Summation Dance, and Treehouse Shakers. As with the previous sessions, the DeVos Institute extended invitations to a group of organizations to apply for the training portion of the BAM PDP-expanding the program's reach beyond Brooklyn-based companies. These additional organizations taking part in the program areBalletNext, Beth Morrison Projects, S? Percussion, and Zvi Dance.

The Joyce Theater is proud to present the Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB), under the direction of former New York City Ballet dancer Peter Boal, returning after a wildly successful sold-out 2010 engagement, from October 8 - 12. With this return engagement, PNB will present two East Coast premieres by choreographers Christopher Wheeldon and Alejandro Cerrudo, and a preview of a brand new work by New York City Ballet principal dancer and acclaimed choreographer Justin Peck. Tickets, starting at $10, can be purchased through JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or online at www.joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.

GRANVILLE, Ohio—Denison University announces the launch of its first Ensemble-in-Residence program, a collaboration between the Department of Music and the Vail Series. The Ensemble-in-Residence program will engage the entire campus and the greater community in an exploration of music and other academic disciplines. The program will host the renowned string quartet ETHEL for the 2014-2015 academic year.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), led by Artistic Director Grant Gershon, launches the 2014|15 season, its 51st, with a spectacular multi-faceted cinematic and aural event featuring the Walt Disney Concert Hall premiere of Richard Einhorn's "brilliantly effective" (Washington Post) 1994 work Voices of Light/The Passion of Joan of Arc, inspired by and performed live to the 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc. Einhorn's evocative piece, written for orchestra, chorus and soloists, provides a haunting backdrop to the rarely seen restored version of Carl Dreyer's cinematic masterpiece, considered by many critics to be among the top films ever made.

Winding up the Zev Yaroslavsky Signature Series and bringing the Ford Theatres 2014 summer season to a close, Ezralow Dance takes the stage at the Ford Amphitheatre tonight, Sept. 13 at 8 p.m.

Roulette presents a tremendous 36th Season that highlights their three decades at the helm of experimental music, dance and intermedia. Starting the season by celebrating Sun Ra's Centennial, Roulette opens with The Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen and with Jazz Record's 2013 "Musician of the Year" Nate Wooley as the opener.

The Martha Graham Dance Company's Shape&Design theme explores Graham's defining influence as an American modernist with programs that feature the sculptural and architectural aspects of choreography by Graham and others. The Company's two-week season at The Joyce Theater in New York City, February 10–22, 2015, will offer Graham classics, new commissions, and premieres by guest choreographers in three varied programs. The Company's expansive 2014-15 season also includes a twenty-city U.S. tour, and several projects related to Shape&Design, including partnerships with the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the international art gallery Hauser & Wirth.

The Collegiate Chorale announces its 2014-15 season: the New York City Premiere of Eric Idle and John DuPrez's Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) at Carnegie Hall, followed by George F. Handel's Susanna at Town Hall, and the US Premiere of Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel's The Road of Promise at Carnegie Hall.