New York, NY —
BANG ON A CAN PEOPLE’S COMMISSIONING FUND CONCERTThe Bang on a Can All-Stars perform 2 world premieres *commissioned by the people*, with special guest Lee Ranaldo.
KATE MOORE | LOK-YIN TANG
LEE RANALDO | ALVIN LUCIER | FRED FRITH
Lok Yin Tang: Distorted Indulgence*
Kate Moore: Ridgeway*
Fred Frith: Snakes & Ladders
Alvin Lucier: Canon
Lee Ranaldo: How Deep Are Rivers? (A Map is a Good Piece of Paper)**
*World Premieres, **New York Premiere
Merkin Hall
at Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th Street
(between Broadway and Amsterdam)
» Tickets
» New Sounds Live 2008-2009 Concert Season
The Bang on a Can All-Stars, New York’s electric chamber ensemble, take on new works commissioned by the People, for the People, in this 2009 People’s Commissioning Fund Concert. The All-Stars premiere work by international up-and-coming composers Kate Moore (Australia-Holland) and Lok Yin Tang (Hong Kong). The 2nd part of the concert is a new music triple-feature: a recently commissioned work by the legendary American composer Alvin Lucier, a piece by composer and guitar-wizard Fred Frith, and the New York Premiere of a live collaboration with Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. Bonus live introductions and interviews with host John Schaefer will be taped from the stage for later broadcast on New Sounds.
has been living and working as a composer in the Netherlands since August 2002 where she completed a Masters in music under Louis Andriessen. Moore has written for a vast array of ensembles including Syntonia, Orkest de Volharding, De Ereprijs Orkest, Ensemble Klang, Trio Kassandra, Is(BoaC MASSMoCA), The Song Company, Modelo62 and her own Very Big cello and double bass ensemble. She has embraced many curious experiences, including spending two weeks in the ocean building a floating sound sculpture collaborating with Australian sculptor Jade Oakley in connection with The Noosa Floating Land Festival. She has created interactive sound installations supported by the Foundation for Young Australians program, Bundanon Living Arts Space and the Australian National University, and has collaborated with the National Choreographic Centre based in the ACT. Her works have been performed in high profile festivals such as the International Gaudeamus Festival of Contemporary Music and Bang on a Can Summer festival MASSMoCA and in venues including The National Gallery of Australia, De Balie in Amsterdam and Theatre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. She has received a number of awards for her creative work. In 2003 she was a prize winner at the Appeldoorn Young Composer Meeting and was in 2001 a recipient of the Franco Australian Composition Competition for her work entitled Sketches of Stars. For four years running 1999–2002 she received the Howard Allen Memorial Prize for composition and during her undergraduate studies she was awarded an honours scholarship and The University Medal for excellence in Music.
is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Composition, studying with Prof. Wing-wah Chan and Prof. Victor Chan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where she obtained a Masters in composition. She received her Bachelor of Music at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under the tutelage of Wing-fai Law and Clarence Mak. Tang’s has received numerous composition awards. In 2006, her Sheng Concerto “Volcanicity” won the Young Composer Award at the Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition. In 2007, the chamber ensemble piece “The Giving Tree II” was awarded frist prize at the Asian Pacific Festival Young Composer Composition Competition in New Zealand. In summer, “Convergence” brought her the Outstanding Prize of the “Palatino” piano composition competition in China. Tang also received the ACL Yoshiro IRINO Memorial Prize in December 2007. In 2007, Tang received a Fulbright Scholarship be a visiting scholar at Columbia University, studying with Tristan Murail.
was born in 1931 in Nashua, New Hampshire. He was educated in Nashua public and parochial schools, the Portsmouth Abbey School, Yale, and Brandeis and spent two years in Rome on a Fulbright Scholarship. From 1962 to 1970 he taught at Brandeis, where he conducted the Brandeis University Chamber Chorus which devoted much of its time to the performance of new music. Since 1970 he has taught at Wesleyan University where he is John Spencer Camp Professor of Music. Lucier has pioneered in many areas of music composition and performance, including the notation of performers' physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by sound in vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes. His recent works include a series of sound installations and works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra in which, by means of close tunings with pure tones, sound waves are caused to spin through space. Mr. Lucier performs, lectures and exhibits his sound installations extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia. He regularly contributes articles to books and periodicals. His own book, Chambers, written in collaboration with Douglas Simon, was published by the Wesleyan University Press. In addition, several of his works are available on Cramps (Italy), Disques Montaigne, Source, Mainstream, CBS Odyssey, Nonesuch, and Lovely Music Records
is a composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who has situated himself for more than thirty years in the area where rock music and new music meet. Co-founder of the British underground band Henry Cow (1968-78), he moved to New York in the late seventies and came into contact with many of the musicians with whom he’s since been associated, including, for example, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Tom Cora, Zeena Parkins, and Bob Ostertag. Fourteen years in New York gave rise to groups like Massacre (with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher), Skeleton Crew (with Tom and Zeena), and Keep the Dog, a sextet performing an extensive repertoire of Fred’s compositions. In the eighties Fred began to write for dance, film, and theatre, and this in turn has led to his composing for Rova Sax Quartet, Ensemble Modern, Arditti Quartet, Asko Ensemble, and many other groups, including his own critically acclaimed Guitar Quartet. Best known world-wide as an improvising guitarist, Fred has also performed in a variety of other contexts, playing bass in John Zorn’s Naked City, violin in Lars Hollmer’s Looping Home Orchestra, and guitar on recordings ranging from The Residents and René Lussier to Brian Eno and Amy Denio. Fred is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzels’ award-winning documentary film Step Across the Border. He is currently Professor of Composition at Mills College in Oakland, California.
is a visual artist, writer, and founding member of the New York City group Sonic Youth, who continue to record new music and tour the world on a regular basis. Their most recent record is Rather Ripped [2006, Geffen Records]. An extensive touring museum exhibition, Sonic Youth, etc: Sensational Fix, opened in June 2008 at LIFE, St. Nazaire, France. His visual+sound works have been shown at galleries and museums in Paris, Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, and Vienna. In August 2007 he was artist-in-residence at Atelier cneai, Paris. His latest collection, Hello From The American Desert [2007, Silver Wonder Press], contains poems from 2004-2007 which enlist internet spam as a springboard for poetry. Recent solo recordings include The Celestial Answer (with William Hooker) [2005, Table of the Elements]; Metal Box, with Text of Light [2006, Dirter]; and the forthcoming Maelstrom from Drift. [2008, Three-Lobed].
The Bang on a Can All-Stars have gained an international reputation for extreme virtuosity and an utterly unique sound, powered by their unusual combination of clarinet, electric guitar, cello, bass, keyboards, and percussion. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, the six-member ensemble is constantly exploring new and innovative ways to present music. Composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe started Bang on a Can in 1987 in New York City as a way to present concerts of music they loved; the enterprise has since grown into one of the most vital, enduring, and beloved forces in America’s new music scene. Dedicated to presenting the work of composers across a wide spectrum, Bang on a Can has created a home for musical inventors, misfits, and pioneers. The organization is now comprised of its resident ensemble the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who tour to major festivals and concert venues around the world; The People’s Commissioning Fund, a commissioning program that creates unprecedented opportunities for emerging composers; the annual mammoth Bang on a Can Marathon concert in New York; touring productions such as the staged oratorio Lost Objects and the OBIE winning opera The Carbon Copy Building based on the work of comic book artist Ben Katchor; Cantaloupe Music, the record label formed by Bang on a Can in 2001 (domestic distribution by harmonia mundi USA); the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA; and more…
Additional Resources:
» Bang on a Can's website
» Kate Moore
» Lok Yin Tang
» Lok Yin Tang’s MySpace
» Alvin Lucier
» Fred Frith
» Lee Ranaldo
» More about the Bang of a Can People's Commissioning Fund
» New Sounds Live 2008-2009 Concert Season
» Merkin Hall