Bang on a Can Celebrates 25th Anniversary With Concerts Worldwide

The "relentlessly inventive" (New York Magazine) new music institution Bang on a Can will celebrate its 25th anniversary season in 2011-2012 with performances around the world, featuring a broad selection of brand new musical adventures alongside a recommitment to acclaimed projects from past years. Bang on a Can performances this season take place in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, London, Moscow, Glasgow, and in many other places throughout the U.S. and internationally. (See schedule at the end of this release.)

Projects for the 2011-2012 season include the Bang on a Can All-Stars in a dizzying array of collaborations with friends old and new - joining forces with Norwegian superstars Trio Mediaeval (in Julia Wolfe's Steel Hammer); with percussion legend Steven Schick (in an evening of music by Steve Reich in Los Angeles's Disney Hall, featuring 2x5 and Music for 18 Musicians); with an all-new expanded live tour of Brian Eno's ambient classic Music for Airports; and with a host of composers, visual and sound artists (in the premiere of a new evening-length touring project, Field Recordings - a collaborative program created from found sounds, images, and voices). The season also includes the premiere of a newly staged show featuring the avant marching band Asphalt Orchestra, new CD releases on Bang on a Can's sister-label Cantaloupe Music, and more.

Since its creation by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, Bang on a Can has 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. In addition to the 25th anniversary of its founding, Bang on a Can is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of its electric chamber ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars; the 15th anniversary of its membership-based commissioning arm, the Peoples' Commissioning Fund; and the 10th anniversary of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a professional development program for young composers and performers which connects the pioneers of experimental music to the next generation. Each new program evolved to further expose innovative music as broadly and accessibly as possible to new audiences worldwide.

"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."

The 2011-2012 Bang on a Can season in the U.S. kicks off on September 25, 2011 with a performance by Bang on a Can's latest creation - the radical street band Asphalt Orchestra, bringing ambitious processional music to the mobile masses. Asphalt hits the streets of Brooklyn at the DUMBO Arts Festival with music by Brazilian iconoclast Tom Ze, Zimbabwean provocateur Thomas Mapfumo, Swedish metal band Meshuggah, and commissioned works written especially for the group by David Byrne, St. Vincent, Goran Bregovic, and more. On October 5, 2011 Asphalt heads to the Redfern Arts Center in Keene, New Hampshire to premiere a brand new staged indoor show with original choreography by Mark DeChiazza and Andrew Robinson. Asphalt performs throughout the U.S. during the season, and in May 2012 embarks on its first European tour.

On November 5, 2011 the Bang on a Can All-Stars take the stage at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall to perform the New York premieres of Louis Andriessen's Life (postponed from last season due to the unpronounceable volcano in Iceland) and David Lang's Sunray, plus Michael Gordon's For Madeline, Kate Moore's Ridgeway, three pieces commissioned by Bang on a Can from David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors, and Lukas Ligeti's Glamour Girl. Recordings of these works and more will be released on the All-Stars' first studio album in five years: a two-CD set titled Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, to be released on Cantaloupe Music in January 2012.

Throughout 2011-12, Bang on a Can continues its three-year residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Last season, with MIT as a leading partner, the Bang on a Can All-Stars anchored two critically acclaimed Boston-area performances: Evan Ziporyn's enchanting opera A House in Bali at the Cutler Majestic Theater and MIT's New Music Marathon. Fueled by the creative energy that resulted, MIT will host the Bang on a Can All-Stars from October 2011 through April 2012 in monthly visits by the ensemble to the MIT campus for a wide range of artistic, educational, and performance activities.

The residency includes two landmark concerts at MIT's Kresge Auditorium. The Boston-area premiere of Julia Wolfe's folk ballad Steel Hammer, featuring the All-Stars with the Norwegian vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval, will be on November 12, 2011. Premiered to critical acclaim, Steel Hammer is a new setting of numerous competing versions telling the story of the timeless Appalachian legend of John Henry and his struggle against the steam engine. 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. The concert will also include the Boston-area premiere of Timber, an explosive new percussion work by Michael Gordon scored for six graduated wooden Simantras - Greek liturgical percussion instruments introduced originally into the concert world by composer Iannis Xenakis. On March 10, 2012, MIT and Bang on a Can will offer a program of new works including Steve Reich's recently composed double rock quintet, 2x5, scored for two sets of two electric guitars, electric bass, piano, and drums.

On January 17, 2012 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, presented as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella series, the Bang on a Can All-Stars will join forces with percussionist Steven Schick (one of the original members of the All-Stars) and his group red fish, blue fish on a program titled "2x5+18" featuring the West Coast premiere of Steve Reich's 2x5 alongside the all-time Reich classic, Music for 18 Musicians. Reich's Clapping Music (performed by the composer himself with the All-Stars' percussionist David Cossin) and Piano/Video Phase, Cossin's video-enhanced arrangement of Piano Phase for electronic percussion and video, will complete the concert. Music for 18 Musicians also anchors the All-Stars' performance the following night, January 18, at the University of California, San Diego.

Bang on a Can's newest project Field Recordings is set to premiere in March 2012 (venue to be announced shortly), featuring specially commissioned music by Tyondai Braxton, Mira Calix, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Christian Marclay, Julia Wolfe, Nick Zammuto of The Books, and Evan Ziporyn. Each composer has been asked to find and interact with material recorded before - found sound, images, ideas, and voices. Field Recordings is about memory, the ghosts of sound and voices from the past, and is a new touring and recording project for the Bang on a Can All-Stars for the 2012-13 season and beyond.

Summer 2012 brings Bang on a Can's signature Bang on a Can Marathon at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York in June, and its three-week Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams in July. (Details will be announced in the spring.)

About Bang on a Can

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 .

Bang on a Can 25th Anniversary Season Schedule (subject to change, updates at www.bangonacan.org/events/upcoming)

September 15, 2011 at 10pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by Steve Reich
Sacrum Profanum Festival | ?a?nia Nowa Theatre | Krakow, Poland
Information: www.sacrumprofanum.com

September 16, 2011 at 7pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by Michael Gordon & Jagoda Szmytka
Sacrum Profanum Festival | Museum of Urban Engineering | Krakow, Poland
Information: www.sacrumprofanum.com

September 17, 2011 at 2:15pm
Asphalt Orchestra | outdoor show
Silvermine Guild Art Center | Silvermine Guild Art Center | New Canaan, CT
Information: www.silvermineart.org

September 18, 2011 at 5pm & 8pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by David Lang, Michael Gordon, Evan Ziporyn, and Brian Eno
Altstadtherbst Festival | Departure Hall C, Düsseldorf Airport | Düsseldorf, Germany
Information: www.altstadtherbst.de/2011/home.html

September 25, 2011 at 12pm
Asphalt Orchestra | outdoor show
DUMBO Arts Festival | Brooklyn Bridge Park area | Brooklyn, NY
Information: http://dumboartsfestival.com/

October 5, 2011 at 7:30pm
Asphalt Orchestra | Premiere of staged indoor show
Keene State College | Redfern Arts Center | Keene, NH
Information: www.keene.edu/racbp/events_music/asphalt_orchestra.html

October 8, 2011 at 2pm
Asphalt Orchestra | outdoor show
Bates College | Olin Arts Center | Lewistown, ME
Information: www.bates.edu

October 8, 2011 at 8:30pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Brian Eno's Music for Airports
Evento 2011 Festival | Place Andre Meunier | Bordeaux, France
Information: http://evento2011.com/fr

October 9, 2011 at 8:30pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by Phil Kline, Michael Gordon, Bryce Dessner, Lukas Ligeti, Philip Glass, & Thurston Moore
Evento 2011 Festival | Theatre Rocher des Palmes | Bordeaux, France
Information: http://evento2011.com/fr

October 11, 2011 at 7pm
Asphalt Orchestra | outdoor show
Ringling International Arts Festival | Ringling Museum of Art Courtyard | Sarasota, FL
Information: www.ringlingartsfestival.org/2011/performances/details.cfm?perID=32

October 15, 2011 at 8pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Louis Andriessen's Workers Union
Evento 2011 Festival | Bordeaux, France
Information: http://evento2011.com/fr

October 29, 2011 at 1:30pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, & Evan Ziporyn
Glasgow's Concert Halls, Minimalism Festival | Tramway | Glasgow, UK
Information: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

October 29, 2011 at 5:30pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by Philip Glass
Glasgow's Concert Halls, Minimalism Festival | Tramway | Glasgow, UK
Information: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

October 30, 2011 at 4pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by David Longstreth, Lukas Ligeti, Thurston Moore, & Philip Glass
Glasgow's Concert Halls, Minimalism Festival | Glasgow Royal Concert Hall | Glasgow, UK
Information: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

October 30, 2011 at 8:15pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Brian Eno's Music for Airports
Glasgow's Concert Halls, Minimalism Festival | Glasgow Royal Concert Hall | Glasgow, UK
Information: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

November 4, 2011 at 7pm
Asphalt Orchestra | staged indoor show
Fitchburg State University | Weston Auditorium | Fitchburg, MA
Information: www.fitchburgstate.edu/cultural/

November 5, 2011 at 9pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by David Lang, Michael Gordon, Louis Andriessen, David Longstreth, Kate Moore, & Lukas Ligeti
Carnegie Hall | Zankel Hall | NYC
Information: www.carnegiehall.org/Event.aspx?id=5061

November 12, 2011 at 8pm
Bang on Can All-Stars, Trio Mediaeval & Mantra Percussion | Julia Wolfe's Steel Hammer & Michael Gordon's Timber
MIT | Kresge Auditorium | Cambridge, MA
Information: arts.mit.edu

January 17, 2012 at 8pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich, Steven Schick, red fish blue fish | Music of Steve Reich
Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series | Walt Disney Concert Hall | Los Angeles, CA
Information: www.laphil.com/tickets/performance-detail.cfm?id=4668

January 18, 2012 at 7pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich, Steven Schick, red fish blue fish | Music of Steve Reich
UCSD | Department of Music's Conrad Prebys Concert Hall | La Jolla, CA
Information: http://artpwr.com/events/822

March 10, 2012 at 8pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music of Steve Reich and more
MIT | Kresge Auditorium | Cambridge, MA
Information: arts.mit.edu

March 17, 2012 at 8:15pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by Brian Eno, Steve Martland, David Longstreth, & Steve Reich
Muziekgebouw | Amsterdam, Netherlands
Information: www.muziekgebouw.nl/agenda/Concerten/1817/Bang_on_a_Can_All_Stars/Music_for_Airports/

March 23, 2012 at 6pm & 7:30pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars & London Sinfonietta | Music by Louis Andriessen & Steve Reich
Glasgow's Concert Halls, Minimal Extreme Festival | Glasgow Royal Concert Hall | Glasgow, UK
Information: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

March 24, 2012 at 10:30pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Music by Julia Wolfe, Kate Moore, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, & Steve Martland
Glasgow's Concert Halls, Minimal Extreme Festival | Glasgow Royal Concert Hall | Glasgow, UK
Information: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

April 5, 2012 at 8pm
Asphalt Orchestra | staged indoor show
Connecticut College | Palmer Auditorium | New London, CT
Information: www.conncoll.edu/events/concerts

April 12, 2012 at 8pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars | Brian Eno's Music for Airports
North Central College | Wentz Concert Hall | Naperville, IL
Information: http://finearts.northcentralcollege.edu

June TBA, 2012
Bang on a Can Marathon
World Financial Center Winter Garden | New York, NY
Details to be announced.

July 8-29, 2012
Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival
MASS MoCA | North Adams, MA
Information: www.massmoca.org

 

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