David Lang News

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel and Music Director George Manahan, American Composers Orchestra's (ACO) 2014-2015 season strengthens the orchestra's commitment to serve as a catalyst for the creation of new orchestral music, providing unprecedented opportunities for American composers to create new work and for audiences to discover it. Now in its 11th year at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Orchestra Underground continues as ACO's subversive and entrepreneurial redefinition of the orchestra as an elastic ensemble, and this year features the rarely performed orchestral music of pioneering composer and performer Meredith Monk, holder of the 2014-2015 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall (Monk's Sphere, November 21). Orchestra Underground brings cabaret, pop, and jazz traditions into the concert hall in a program featuring Kurt Weill's cabaret cult classic The Seven Deadly Sins sung by Shara Worden (Sin & Songs, February 27). For the first time in several seasons, ACO returns to performing with full symphonic forces outside of Carnegie Hall - the orchestra's April concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center will showcase the New York premiere ofWynton Marsalis' Blues Symphony.

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 Collegiate Chorale announces the New York premiere of battle hymns on May 15, 2014 at 7:30pm at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Pier 86, 12th Ave. & 46th Street in New York, NY.

Bernard Haitink will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct two weeks of performances highlighting works by Austrian composers - Berg, Webern, and Mahler - and Beethoven, who spent much of his career in Austria. In the first program, Mr. Haitink will conduct Webern's Im Sommerwind, Berg's Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, on Thursday, May 8, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 9 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 10 at 8:00 p.m. Bernard Haitink's appearances are part of an international, season-wide celebration of the 60th anniversary of his conducting debut with the Netherlands Radio Union Orchestra (now the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra) and his 85th birthday.

Tonight, April 1 at 7:30pm at Opera America's National Opera Center, New York Festival of Song concludes its 2013-14 edition of NYFOS Next-the series for new song in which composers curate and host an hour of contemporary song-with celebrated composer HAROLD MELTZER.

The five-time Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus--Lisa Bielawa, Artistic Director and Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Principal Conductor-continues its 35th anniversary season with a fully staged production of Benjamin Britten's 1957 opera Noye's Fludde, based on the biblical deluge story, in one performance only, tonight, March 29, 2014, at 8 pm at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the New York Premiere of The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Requiem with baritone Jacques Imbrailo, the Westminster Symphonic Choir directed by Joe Miller, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the New York Premiere of The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Requiem with baritone Jacques Imbrailo, the Westminster Symphonic Choir directed by Joe Miller, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concert, Monday, May 5, 2014, at 7:30 p.m., will open the Spring For Music festival at Carnegie Hall, for which North American orchestras are invited to present one-night-only performances of unusual programming.

Carnegie Hall celebrates the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking contemporary music ensemble Kronos Quartet with a one-night-only concert in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage featuring collaborations with some of the group's close colleagues and longtime artistic partners tonight, March 28 at 8:00 p.m.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced March 20 that it will induct nine new members into the 250-person organization in mid-May, including internationally recognized artist Ann Hamilton, professor, Department of Art, and Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University. The honor of election is considered the highest formal recognition of artistic merit in the United States.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announces the subject matter of the upcoming works to receive their world premieres by the Orchestra as part of the groundbreaking artistic collaboration with the MusicNOW Festival and Artistic Director Bryce Dessner. On Today, March 21, the Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director Louis Langrée, will premiere Nico Muhly's Pleasure Ground, a portrait work depicting the life of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. On Saturday, March 22, Mr. Langrée and the CSO will premiere mountain, a new work by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang depicting the life of American composer Aaron Copland.

This spring, the current musicians of Ensemble ACJW conclude their two-year fellowship program with several exciting performances of classical and contemporary music at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall as well as in a variety of venues throughout New York City. In fall 2014, a group of new musicians will join the ensemble, which not only features outstanding performances, but also emphasizes community engagement and music education experience in New York City public schools.

La MaMa, in association with Monk Parrots, presents the World Premiere of Bum Phillips All-American Opera, a new contemporary opera conceptualized and directed by Luke Leonard, composed and conducted by Peter Stopschinski, with a libretto by Kirk Lynn. Bum Phillips All-American Opera runs from March 12 - 30, 2014 in a limited engagement at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre, located at 66 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue & the Bowery in New York City. Previews begin March 12 for a March 15 opening.

From April 22 to April 29, David Lang, holder of Carnegie Hall's 2013-2014 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair, guides concertgoers through collected stories, a series in which six distinct themes are explored over six Zankel Hall performances, all at 6:00 p.m. and all curated by Mr. Lang. These multi-genre concerts-entitled hero, spirit, love/loss, travel, (post)folk, and memoir-showcase different modes of storytelling across a wide variety of music, from medieval Beowulf to conceptual John Cage, and include world premieres of new music by Lang, Kate Moore, and Kaki King, all commissioned by Carnegie Hall.

ETHEL performs “Grace” feat. works by Ennio Morricone, Jeff Buckley, Vijay Iyer, Son Lux, Marcelo Zarvos, Nico Muhly and more today, March 13th at 1:00pm at Trinity Wall Street, 74 Trinity Place, New York City, Train 2/3/4/5 Wall St, R/1 Rector St, J/Z Broad St for FREE. First come, first serve. For more info, call Trinity at 212.602.0800 or visit trinitywallstreet.org.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues the 2013-14 Composer Portraits series with Unsuk Chin featuring Ensemble Signal: Brad Lubman, conductor, Rachel Calloway,mezzo-soprano, Oliver Hagen, piano, Bill Solomon, percussion, and Ning Yu, piano. The show is tonight, March 13, 2014, 8:00 p.m. at the Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street) and Tickets are $20-$30 and for Students with valid ID they are $12-$18.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), heralded around the globe for its exceptional artistry and wide ranging repertoire, showcases 'Minimalist Masterworks,' featuring works by celebrated American composers Steve Reich and David Lang, on Sunday, April 6, 2014, 7 pm, at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The concert opens with Perotin's Sederunt principes featuring tenor soloists Pablo Cora, Michael Lichtenauer and Shawn Kirchner. The Chorale then reprises Reich's You Are (Variations), commissioned, premiered and recorded by the Chorale in 2004 (Nonesuch), and Lang's Pulitzer Prize-winning the little match girl passion, of which LAMC presented an extended choral version last season hailed as 'a performance to remember' (Outwest Arts). ListenUp!, a pre-concert talk with Gershon and KUSC's Alan Chapman, is slated for 6 pm, in BP Hall. The concert is part of the second installment of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's citywide, multi-disciplinary Minimalist Jukebox Festival, curated by composer John Adams.

On Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30pm at Opera America's National Opera Center, New York Festival of Song concludes its 2013-14 edition of NYFOS Next-the series for new song in which composers curate and host an hour of contemporary song-with celebrated composer HAROLD MELTZER.

Acclaimed new-classic string quartet, ETHEL, and groundbreaking guitarist KAKI KING, today announced a multi-city national tour of their debut collaborative concert "...And Other Stories." These prolific non-conformists celebrate their disparate sound worlds in an epic strings/guitar exchange filled with brilliant instrumental flair, rich sonic adventures and flights of fantastic storytelling.