Bang on a Can

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Bang On A Can

Biography

Technically, the name Bang on a Can refers not to a specific set of musicians but to a yearly festival of new music curated by avant-garde composer/performers Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. (Albums by the group are most often credited to the Bang on a Can All-Stars, a relatively stable group of six to eight performers and arrangers who comprise the core of the creative group.) The trio formed Bang on a Can in 1987; over the next ten years, the concept grew from a one-day festival to an impressive array of live and recorded works. The first three Bang on a Can releases were CD anthologies of live recordings taken from the group's 1992, 1993, and 1994 festivals released on the CRI label as Bang on a Can Live, Vol. 1, 2, and 3. Their studio debut came with 1995's Industry, featuring a track each by Wolfe, Lang, and Gordon and two lengthy chamber music pieces by their spiritual mentor Louis Andriessen. Both Industry and its more eclectic follow-up, 1996's Cheating, Lying, Stealing, were released by Sony Classical. Bang on a Can jumped to Universal's new music imprint Point for their next release, a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed re-imagining of Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports that often turned Eno's sketches for tape recorders into beautiful works for live musicians.

In 2001 Lang, Wolfe, and Gordon collaborated on the opera Lost Objects, an extended narrative work with libretto by Deborah Artman featuring vocal soloists, a mixed chorus, a full orchestra and, intriguingly, guest appearances by turntable guru DJ Spooky. Other collaborative ventures included A Carbon Copy Building with comic book artist Ben Katchor (1999) (which won an Obie Award for Best New American Work) and The New Yorkers, with a number of graphic and video artists. The group has recorded several early pieces by the great minimalist composer Steve Reich and paid tribute to another landmark of modern classical music by reinterpreting Terry Riley's In C for a bevy of electric, electronic, and acoustic instruments. That recording was the first release on Cantaloupe Records, a label owned by Bang on a Can to release albums by affiliated composers and performers. The second Bang on a Can release on the label was 2001's eclectic Renegade Heaven, featuring pieces by Glenn Branca and Phil Kline, as well as Gordon's "I Buried Paul," a tongue in cheek salute to the playing of backwards tapes and other unintentional avant-gardisms in relation to the Paul Is Dead hoax of 1969.

In 2002 Bang on a Can founded the Summer Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The Festival brings young performers and composers together with established musicians for a series of workshops and concerts. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi

Discography

Bang on a Can Live, Vol. 3

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Bang on a Can Live, Vol. 3

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Bang On a Can - Cheating, Lying, Stealing

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Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint; Eight Lines; Four Organs

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Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint; Eight Lines; Four Organs

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Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint; Eight Lines; Four Organs

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Lost Objects

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Bang on a Can Classics

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Bang on a Can Classics

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Bang on a Can Classics

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Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. It is a major force in the presentation of new concert music, and has presented hundreds of musical events worldwide.[1]

Contents

Notable performances

Bang on a Can is perhaps best known for its Marathon Concerts [2] during which an eclectic mix of pieces are performed in succession over the course of many hours while audience members, who are encouraged to maintain a "jeans-and-tee-shirt informality," are welcome to come and go as they please. For the twentieth anniversary of their Marathon Concerts, Bang on a Can presented twenty-six hours of uninterrupted music at the World Financial Center Winter Garden Atrium in New York City.

Among the many Bang on a Can events were performances by John Cage, premieres of Glenn Branca’s epic symphonies for massed electric guitars, and fully staged operas of Harry Partch, featuring the composer's original instruments.

In 2002, Bang on a Can began the yearly Summer Institute of Music [3], a program at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) for young composers and performers. This program is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Banglewood" in reference to the nearby, but far more traditional Tanglewood Music Festival.

The three artistic directors occasionally collaborate by jointly composing a large work, often without revealing which sections each contributed. Examples include:

  • The Carbon Copy Building - a "comic book opera" with words and drawings by MacArthur Grant recipient Ben Katchor. It was the winner of the 2000 Obie Award for Best New American Work.
  • Lost Objects - a contemporary oratorio, with a libretto by Deborah Artman. It is a fusion of baroque music and modern soundscapes, rendered in performance by the original instruments ensemble Concerto Köln with four electronic instruments, three solo vocalists, a choir, and a live remix generated by DJ Spooky.
  • The New Yorkers - a staged multimedia concert with additional contributions by filmmakers and visual artists including: Ben Katchor, Bill Morrison, Doug Aitken, and William Wegman.
  • Shelter - a multi-media work that in the words of librettist Deborah Artman, "evokes the power and threat of nature, the soaring frontier promise contained in the framing of a new house, the pure aesthetic beauty of blueprints, the sweet architecture of sound and the uneasy vulnerability that underlies even the safety of our sleep."

People's Commissioning Fund

Bang on a Can has commissioned and premiered pieces by composers including Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Michael Nyman, John Adams, Somei Satoh, Iva Bittová, Roberto Carnevale, Ornette Coleman, Donnacha Dennehy and Bun-Ching Lam. In 1998 the organization began the People's Commissioning Fund [4] which supports the creation of new musical compositions by pooling contributions from numerous member-commissioners whose donations range from $5 to $5,000. To date, this fund has commissioned:

Bang on a Can is associated with the whimsical SPIT Orchestra, and a pre-eminent chamber ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars [5] which in 2005 was named "Ensemble of the Year" by the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. The personnel and instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars is Evan Ziporyn, clarinet and saxophone; Mark Stewart, electric guitar; Ashley Bathgate, cello; Robert Black, double bass; Vicky Chow, keyboards; and David Cossin, percussion.

Recordings

In the past, Bang on a Can released recordings on Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI), Sony Classical, Point Music (Universal), and Nonesuch, but now the majority of its recordings are found on its own record label, Cantaloupe Music[6]. In addition to releasing works by Gordon, Wolfe, and Lang, the label releases CDs of music by composers and musical groups affiliated with the organization, including Evan Ziporyn, Phil Kline, Alarm Will Sound, Icebreaker, Ethel, Gutbucket, R. Luke DuBois, and Don Byron.

Below is a partial discography of released works performed by Bang on a Can or Bang on a Can All-Stars.[7]

Bang on a Can discography

Bang on a Can All-Stars discography

  • 1992: Live Vol. 1
  • 1993: Live Vol. 2
  • 1994: Live Vol. 3
  • 1995: Industry[14]
  • 1997: Lost Objects
  • 1998: Music for Airports (composed by Brian Eno)[15]
  • 2001: Renegade Heaven[16]
  • 2004: Bang on a Can Meets Kyaw Kyaw Naing[17]

Notes and references

  1. ^ "the country's most important vehicle for contemporary music", San Francisco Chronicle
  2. ^ Marathon page Bang on a Can website
  3. ^ Summer Festival page on Bang on a Can website
  4. ^ People's Commissioning Fund page on Bang on a Can website
  5. ^ All Stars page on Bang on a Can website
  6. ^ Cantaloupe Music website
  7. ^ "Albums by Bang on a Can". Last.fm. http://www.last.fm/music/Bang+on+a+Can/+albums. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  8. ^ "In C". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/21. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  9. ^ "Classics". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/27. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  10. ^ "Gigantic Dancing Human Machine". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/28. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  11. ^ "The Carbon Copy Building". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/98. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  12. ^ "A Ballad For Many". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/93. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  13. ^ "Music For Airports (Live)". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/156. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  14. ^ "Industry". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/9. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  15. ^ "Music For Airports". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/10. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  16. ^ "Renegade Heaven". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/22. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  17. ^ "Bang on a Can Meets Kyaw Kyaw Naing". Bang on a Can Store. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/46. Retrieved October 2, 2010. 

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