BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe

October 14, 2014 | 7:30 PMThe Winter Garden at Brookfield Place New York

BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARSAshley Bathgate, Cello Robert Black, BassVicky Chow, PianoDavid Cossin, PercussionMark Stewart, Electric GuitarKen Thomson, Clarinets/Saxophone

with Emily Eagen, Katie Geissinger and Molly Quinn, Voice

Jody Elff, Sound Engineer

STEEL HAMMERSome SayThe StatesDestinyMountainCharacteristicsPolly AnnThe RaceWinnerLord Lord

Steel Hammer was commissioned by Bang on a Can with generous support from Maria and Robert A. Skirnick and Carnegie Hall.

Piano for this performance provided by

TEXT

SOME SAYSome say he’s fromsome say he some say he’s fromsome saysome say he say hehe

THE STATESGeorgiaTennesseeColumbus, OhioKentuckyAlabamaNew JerseyYew Pine MountainsMississippiMountainWest VirginiaSouth Carolina

DESTINYJohn Henrywas a little boysitting on his papa’s kneeJohn Henrywas a little mansitting on his mama’s kneea baby boysitting on his daddy’s kneeJohn Henryhe said, “I‘m gonna be a steel drivin’ man.”He picked up his hammer and a little piece of steelHe said, “This hammer’s gonna be the death of me.”

MOUNTAINThe mountain was so tallJohn Henry was so small

CHARACTERISTICSHe was smallHe was tall He was blackHe was whiteHe was trueHe was falseHe was two hundred poundsHe was two twenty-fiveHe’s a workerConvictSingerThirty-five yearsTwenty-twoFiftyCotton pickerSteel Driver (hammer, hammer, steel, steel)He was trueHe was falseHe was six feet tallHe was five foot oneHe was tallHe was smallHe was smallHe was tall POLLY ANNJohn Henry had a little womanAnd her name wasPolly Ann, Mary Ann, Julie Ann, Sary Ann, Sally Ann, Martha Ann, Liza Ann, Lucy Ann,Mary Magdelena, MagdelenaJohn Henry had a little womanand she was all dressed in blue,dressed in red,

red, blue, blackJohn Henry’s woman said to him,“My darling Johnny, I’ve been true.”true to you, true to youJohn Henry had a little womanand her name was Ida Red,and her name was Liza Jane,and her name was Maggadee,Polly Ann, Mary Ann, Julie Ann, Sary Ann, Sally Ann, Martha Ann, Liza Ann, Lucy Ann,Mary Magdelena, MagdelenaIda Red, Maggadee, Liza Jane,PollyWhen John Henry he took sick to bed,then Polly drove steel just like a man.

THE RACEThe captain told John Henry“gonna bring that steam drill ‘round”John Henry told the captain“a man ain’t nothin’ but a man”nothin’, nothin’, nothin’but a man, but a manJohn Henry on the right sidethe steam drill’s on the leftright, left, right, left“Before I let your steam drill beat me down,I’ll hammer my fool self to death.”nine pound hammerten pound hammertwelve pound hammertwenty pound hammertwo nine pound hammerstwo twenty pound hammers

sixteen pound hammerhammer, hammer, hammer, hammer WINNERThe man that invented the steam drill,he thought he was mighty fine.John Henry sunk the steel fourteen feet,while the steam drill only made nine, Lord Lord, LORD LORDLord LordThis old hammer rings like silverThis old hammer shines like gold

ABOUT STEEL HAMMER Steel Hammer was inspired by my love for the legends and music of Appalachia. The text was culled from the over 200 versions of the John Henry ballad. The various versions, based on hearsay, recollection, and tall tales, explore the subject of human versus machine in the quintessential American legend. Many of the facts are unclear: some say he’s from West Virginia; some say he’s from South Carolina; some say he’s from New Jersey. But regardless of the details, John Henry, wielding a steel hammer, faces the onslaught of the industrial age as his super-human strength is challenged in a contest to out-dig an engine.

I drew upon the extreme variations of the story, fragmenting and weaving the contradictory versions of the ballad that have circulated since the late 1800s into a new whole – at times meditating on single words or phrases – in order to tell the story of the story and to embody the simultaneous diverse paths it traveled. The Bang on a Can All-Stars add a chorus of instruments including mountain dulcimer, wooden bones, banjo, harmonica and body percussion. - Julia Wolfe

ABOUT THE COMPOSER JULIA WOLFE Drawing inspiration from folk, classical and rock genres, Julia Wolfe’s music brings a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them. The Wall Street Journal writes that Wolfe has "long inhabited a terrain of [her] own, a place where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock."

Her art-balled Steel Hammer, runner up for the Pulitzer Prize, was inspired by Wolfe’s love of the legends and music of Appalachia. The text is culled from the over 200 versions of the John Henry ballad – and tells the story of the story. Written for the Norwegian vocal group Trio Mediaeval and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steel Hammer will be seen in New York in a staged production at BAM’s 2015 Next Wave festival under the direction of Anne Bogart with her Siti Company. A CD of Steel Hammer was released in April 2014. Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields for SATB chorus and the Bang on a Can All-Stars with video/projections by Jeff Sugg is a study of life in the Pennsylvania coal mines. Anthracite

Fields was commissioned and premiered by the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia and received its New York premiere with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street as a part of the first NYPHIL Biennial at Avery Fisher Hall in May 2014. Upcoming performances include the west coast premiere with the Los Angeles Masters Chorale at Disney Hall. The LA Times called Anthracite Fields “a major, profound work.”

Wolfe’s body concerto, riSE and fLY, for Colin Currie and the BBC Orchestra, explores rhythmic grooves of street musicians, featuring Currie playing rapid-fire rhythms on his body. The influence of pop culture can be heard in many of Wolfe's works, including Lick, Believing, and Big, Beautiful, Dark, and Scary for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. She has written a major body of work for strings, including four quartets and a string quartet concerto for Kronos. Lick, based on fragments of funk, has become a manifesto for the new generation of pop-influenced composers. The raucous My Lips From Speaking for six pianos was inspired by the opening riff of the Aretha Franklin tune Think. Wolfe’s Dark Full Ride is an obsessive and relentless exploration of four drum sets. In Lad, Wolfe creates a kaleidoscopic landscape for nine bagpipes.

Wolfe has written a major body of work for strings, including four quartets and a string quartet concerto. Her quartets, as described by The New Yorker, “combine the violent forward drive of rock music with an aura of minimalist serenity [using] the four instruments as a big guitar, whipping psychedelic states of mind into frenzied and ecstatic climaxes.” Wolfe’s Cruel Sister for string orchestra, inspired by a traditional English ballad of a love rivalry between sisters, was commissioned by the Munich Chamber Orchestra and received its US premiere at the Spoleto Festival. Written shortly after September 11, 2001, her string quartet concerto My Beautiful Scream, written for Kronos Quartet and the Orchestre National de France (premiered in the US at the Cabrillo Festival under the direction of Marin Alsop), was inspired by the idea of a slow motion scream.

Wolfe has collaborated with theater artist Anna Deveare Smith, architects DillerScofidio+Renfro, filmmaker Bill Morrison, Ridge

Theater, director Francois Girard, Jim Findlay, Susan Marshall, and Doug Varone among others. Her music has been heard at BAM, the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Settembre Musica (Italy), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, at the NCPA in Beijing, and the LG Arts Center in Korea, among others, and has been recorded on Cantaloupe, Teldec, Point/Universal, Sony Classical, and Argo/Decca. In 2009 Wolfe joined the NYU Steinhardt School composition faculty. She is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s music collective Bang on a Can.

BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the All-Stars have shattered the definition of what concert music is today.

Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Burmese circle drum master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Tan Dun, DJ Spooky, and many more. The group’s celebrated projects include their landmark recordings of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley’s In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Don Byron, Iva Bittova, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett and others. The All-Stars were awarded Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2005 and have been heralded as “the country’s most important vehicle for contemporary music” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Recent project highlights include Field Recordings, a major new multi media project featuring up to 18 commissioned works by Tyondai Braxton, Mira Calix, Anna Clyne, Dan Deacon, Bryce Dessner, Florent Ghys, Michael Gordon, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Christian Marclay, Paula Matthusen, Richard Reed Parry, Steve Reich, Todd Reynolds, Daniel

Wohl, Julia Wolfe, and Nick Zammuto; the world premiere, performances, and recording of Steve Reich’s 2x5 including a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall; the group’s multiple visits to China for the Beijing Music Festival and Hong Kong Arts Festival; the 2014 record release of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, featuring Trio Mediaeval and the premiere performances of Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields for the All-Stars and guest choir on the NY Phil Biennial; commissioned works by Louis Andriessen, Bill Frisell, Ryuichi Sakamoto and more. With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group’s distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.

ASHLEY BATHGATE (CELLO) A native of Saratoga Springs, NY, cellist Ashley Bathgate has gained international renown as both a soloist and chamber musician. The New York Times writes, “Ms. Bathgate’s rich tone, fluid dynamics and imaginative phrasing captured the magic.” Equally at home in both the concert hall and the rock club, Ashley focuses on presenting concerts that draw from a wide range of musical genres. Her dedication to performing traditional music is equally matched by her passion to promote new music by today’s composers. She is a member of the award winning, internationally acclaimed Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Metropolis Ensemble and three chamber groups of which she is a founding member: TwoSense, Bonjour and the newly formed collaboration, Samadhi. As a soloist Ashley has performed on many of the world’s great stages including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Musiekgebouw and the Barbican. Her radio/television appearances include performances on WQXR FM’s Young Artist Showcase, NPR’s Performance Today, WYNC’s New Sounds Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. She has recorded for Naxos, Nonesuch, Innova, Cantaloupe Music, La-La Land Records, and Albany Records. Currently, Ashley is embarking on a collaboration with the Brooklyn-based composer collective Sleeping Giant, who will write her a six-movement suite for solo cello to be premiered during the 2015/16 season on the Metropolis Resident Artist Series in NYC. This past September she also premiered a

new, large-scale work for solo cello and chamber orchestra by Australian composer, Kate Moore, and has recorded an album of her solo cello works which will be released in May 2015 on Cantaloupe. Other upcoming commissions include works by Stephen Feigenbaum, Erdem Helvacioglu, Jascha Narveson, Todd Reynolds, and Neil Rolnick. Ashley received her bachelor’s degree from Bard College under the tutelage of Luis Garcia-Renart and a master’s degree from Yale University where she continued her studies with renowned cellist Aldo Parisot. She currently resides in Manhattan, NY. www.AshleyBathgate.com.

ROBERT BLACK (BASS)Robert Black tours the world creating unheard of music for the solo double bass. He collaborates with the most adventurous composers, musicians, dancers, artists, actors, and technophiles from all walks of life. He has commissioned, collaborated, or performed with musicians from John Cage to D.J. Spooky, Elliott Carter to Meredith Monk, Cecil Taylor to young emerging composers, as well as the Brazilian painter Ige D’Aquino, Japanese choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, the American actor Kathryn Walker, the English sound artist/DJ, Mira Calix and Swiss-American film maker, Rudy Burckhardt. Robert Black is a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and he maintains a full teaching schedule at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, the Festival Eleazar de Carvalho (Brazil), and the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program. A recipient of numerous grants, he recently received the Degree of Comendador - Mérito Cultural e Artistico from the Fundação Educacional, Cultural e Artistica Elezar de Carvalho in recognition of 25 years of distinguished contributions to the cultural and artistic life of Brazil. His current project, titled Possessed, is a series of solo improvisatory outdoor performances in Utah’s rugged canyon/desert landscape, which will be released in DVD and CD format on Cantaloupe Records in 2015. Other projects include Modern American Bass (New World Records 2011), State of the Bass (O.O. Discs), The Complete Bass Music of Christian Wolff (Mode Records), The Complete Bass Music of Giacinto (Mode Records). Robert has also recorded for Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Cantaloupe, Koch International, CRI, Opus One, Artifact Recordings, Folkways Records, and others. Additionally, Robert is on the

Advisory Board of the international radio series Art of the States, is the Director the International Society of Bassists’ biennial International Composition Competition, and adjudicates for the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City. Robert performs on a French double bass made by Charles Brugere in Paris in 1900. He tours with a B-21 instrument that he commissioned from the French luthier, Patrick Charton in 2009. www.robertblack.org www.RobertBlack.org

VICKY CHOW (PIANO & KEYBOARDS) Canadian pianist Vicky Chow has been described as “brilliant” (The New York Times) and “one of the new stars of new music” (Los Angeles Times). Joining the All-Stars in 2009, she is now also a member of New Music Detroit, X88, and GRANDBAND. Her recording of Steve Reich’s ‘Piano Counterpoint’ has recently been released under the Nonesuch label and her next solo album featuring a newly commissioned evening length work by Tristan Perich titled ‘Surface Image’ for solo piano and 40 channel 1-bit electronics will be released in October 2014 under New Amsterdam Records. Her next projects include commissions from American composers Chris Cerrone, Molly Joyce and Canadian composers Adam Basanta and Jocelyn Morlock. Ms. Chow also produces and curates “Contagious Sounds,” a new music series focusing on adventurous contemporary artists and composers in New York City. She receives continuous support from the Canada Council for the Arts and has received grants from the Aaron Copland Fund, Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, Fromm Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, and the BC Arts Council. Originally from Vancouver Canada, Ms. Chow studied at The Juilliard School with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin before continuing studies at Manhattan School of Music with Christopher Oldfather. Starting the piano at age 5, she was invited to perform at the age of 9 at the International Gilmore Music Keyboard Festival. She made her orchestral debut at the age of 10 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra made her NY orchestral debut appearance at Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Symphony. Ms. Chow is based in Brooklyn. www.VickyChow.com

DAVID COSSIN (PERCUSSION) David Cossin was born and raised in Queens, New York, and studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. His interest in classical percussion, drum set, non-western hand drumming, composition, and improvisation has led to performances across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms to incorporate new media with percussion. David has recorded and performed internationally with composers and ensembles including Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio, Real Quiet. Numerous theater projects include collaborations with Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and director Peter Sellars. David was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Dun’s Grammy and Oscar winning score to Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Most recently, David is happy to have performed with Sting on his latest world tour, Symphonicity. David has performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sao Paulo State Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Hong Kong Symphony, and the Singapore Symphony. David ventures into other art forms include sonic installations, which have been presented in New York, Italy and Germany. David is also an active composer and has invented several new instruments, which expand the limits of traditional percussion. David is the curator for the Sound Res Festival, an experimental music festival in southern Italy and also teaches percussion at Queens College in New York City. www.DavidCossin.com.

EMILY EAGEN (VOICE) Emily Eagen is a versatile singer who performs in a variety of styles ranging from baroque to folk to avant garde. She studied early and contemporary music in the Hague, and moved to New York in 2007. Emily sings with the M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation, toured for several years with the eclectic vocal ensemble moira smiley and VOCO, and has worked with artists ranging from Sufjan Stevens to Mandy Patinkin to Gyan Riley. She is a regular faculty member at the Amherst Early Music Festival (CT) and the Augusta Heritage Center (WV), and is a teaching artist for Carnegie Hall. Also a two-time International

Whistling Champion, Emily can be heard whistling, singing, and playing the ukulele with the Brooklyn blues and old-time band The Whistling Wolves.

KATIE GEISSINGER (VOICE) Katie’s previous work with Julia Wolfe includes Steel Hammer at MASSMoCA and the Obie Award-winning The Carbon Copy Building (Canteloupe), co-composed by Bang on a Can. Katie is a long-time member of Meredith Monk’s Vocal Ensemble, with whom she tours staged productions and concerts worldwide, and regularly records (including the Grammy-nominated Impermanence). This season’s performances include On Behalf of Nature at BAM and in San Francisco, and several concerts in Brazil and at Carnegie Hall. Previous performances at Carnegie include Bach’s Magnificat, the Witch in Honegger’s Le Roi David, and Einstein on the Beach (Elektra Nonesuch). Katie also appeared at BAM in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (Jonathan Miller, dir.); Broadway credits include Coram Boy and La Boheme (Baz Luhrmann, dir.).

MARK STEWART (GUITAR)Raised in America’s Dairy Land of Wisconsin, Multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. Going to conservatory to study both guitar and cello, he came to NYC to work as a performer on both instruments; however upon completing school he was most drawn to the electric guitar. Today Mark plays regularly with with a wide range of musicians: since 1998 he has recorded, toured and been Musical Director with Paul Simon. A founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Mark is also a member of Steve Reich & Musicians and the comic duo Polygraph Lounge with keyboard & theremin wizard Rob Schwimmer and has performed with Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bobby McFerrin, Paul McCartney, the Everly Brothers, David Byrne, & James Taylor. Mark has collaborated extensively with composer Elliot Goldenthal on music for the feature films The Tempest, Across the Universe, Titus, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, In Dreams, and Heat, often playing instruments of his own design and construction. He is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music & his New York Lower East Side “lab” is home

to an instrument workshop and sonic salon where traditional and new instruments cohabitate. Stewart can be heard on Warner Bros., Sony, Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Nonesuch, Label Bleu, Resonance Magnetique, Cantaloupe and CRI recordings. He lives in New York City making his living playing and writing popular music, semi-popular music and unpopular music.

KEN THOMSON (CLARINETS)Ken Thomson is a Brooklyn-based clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer. Called “the hardest-working saxophonist in new-music show business” by Time Out NY, he co-leads Bang on a Can’s newest band, the Asphalt Orchestra: a 12-piece next-generation mobile ensemble. He also performs with the 14-year running punk/jazz collective Gutbucket and is a member of contemporary chamber ensemble Signal. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, the True/False Film Festival, and others, and has received awards from ASCAP and NewMusic USA. He is on faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. He is a Conn-Selmer/Selmer Paris Artist, and endorses Sibelius Software and AMT microphones. His first CD as a leader with his group Slow/Fast, It Would Be Easier If (Intuition Records), hit multiple Top of the Year lists; The New York Times review spoke of the “intricately wrought and incident-steeped” compositions and “gutsy precision of the playing.” He is currently working on a follow-up Slow/Fast CD; a disc of his string quartets recorded by the JACK Quartet, entitled Thaw, was released in 2013 on Cantaloupe Music. www.Ktonline.net

MOLLY QUINN (VOICE)Molly Quinn has captivated audiences with her “radiant” soprano, possessing an “arresting sweetness and simplicity” (The New York Times) in diverse repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to the Rolling Stones. She is a soloist on Trinity Choir’s GRAMMY nominated recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and has appeared with them in London, Moscow, and Paris and joined them in singing back up for The Rolling Stones at The Barclay Center. Ms. Quinn has been a long-time collaborator with TENET. The ensemble is currently recording a follow up album to 2013’s critically acclaimed Uno + One: Italia Nostra. Having strong roots in the music of Appalachia and Ireland, Ms Quinn has performed

in the programs Come to the River with Apollo’s Fire and The Music of Dublin with The Folger Consort. Ms. Quinn was a 2013 season Adams Fellows at the Carmel Bach Festival and holds a Masters in Vocal Performance from CCM. www.MollyQuinn.com

JODY ELFF (SOUND ENGINEER) Jody Elff is an audio engineer, sound artist, musician, and composer. Elff has had the pleasure of working in some of the most unusual musical and sonic environments imaginable. He has worked with Laurie Anderson, Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, Paul Winter, Hall & Oates, Paul Simon, and many others. In addition, Elff has mixed countless televised concert events. He scored the feature-length film All the Wrong Places, and is the resident sound designer for the National Theater of the United States of America. His work with sonic environments has led him to develop a series of sound art works which have been presented at museums and galleries internationally. In 2002, he was commissioned to create a permanent sound art installation for a public parking garage in Lyon, France, which opened in October 2004.

HEAR THEM AGAIN!Bang on a Can All-Stars CDs, including Steel Hammer, are on sale online at www.bangonacan.org/store. You can also join the “Cantaloupe Club” and receive new Bang on a Can CDs before they are released to the public as well as other exclusive offers.

ABOUT BANG ON A CANBang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Since its first Marathon concert in 1987, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found. With adventurous programs, it commissions new composers, performs, presents, and records new work, develops new audiences, and educates the musicians of the future. Bang on a Can is building a world in which powerful new musical ideas flow freely across all genres and borders. Bang on a Can plays “a central role in fostering a new kind of audience that doesn’t concern itself with boundaries. If music is made with originality and integrity, these listeners will come.” (The New York Times)

Over 27 years, 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. “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 27 years, and we are not done yet.”

Current projects include 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 led by today’s pioneers of experimental music; Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can’s extreme street band that offers mobile performances re-contextualizing unusual music; Found Sound Nation, a new technology-based musical outreach program now partnering with the State Department of the United States of America to create OneBeat, a revolutionary, post-political residency program that uses music to bridge the gulf between young American musicians and young musicians from developing countries; cross-disciplinary collaborations and projects with DJs, visual artists, choreographers, filmmakers and more. Each new program has evolved to answer specific challenges faced by today’s musicians, composers and audiences, in order to make innovative music widely accessible and wildly received. Bang on a Can’s inventive 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 up-to-date information regarding Bang on a Can programs, events, and CD releases, please visit our website at www.bangonacan.org, call us at 718-852-7755 or email info@bangonacan.org

Artistic Directors Michael Gordon David Lang Julia WolfeExecutive Director Kenny SavelsonDevelopment Director Tim ThomasProject Manager Philippa Thompson Communications Manager Jessica SchmitzProduction Manager Yisroel LazarosFound Sound Nation Co-Directors Chris Marianetti Jeremy Thal Elena Moon ParkAccounts Manager Brian PetuchOnline Store Manager Adam Cuthbert

BOARD OF DIRECTORSDaniel Baldini, President, Jeffrey Bishop, Barry Goldberg, Michael Gordon, Lynette Jaffe, Alan Kifferstein, Michael Kushner, David Lang, Elizabeth Murrell, Robert A. Skirnick, Jane Stewart, Julia Wolfe, Adam Wolfensohn

BANG ON A CAN SUPPORTERS Bang on a Can’s 2014-15 programs are made possible with generous lead support from:Mary Lou Aleskie, Amphion Foundation, ASCAP Foundation, Atlantic Records, Daniel Baldini, Robert D. Bielecki, Bishop Fund, Booth Ferris Foundation, Chamber Music America, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Glenn Cornett, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Jaffe Family Foundation, Alan Kifferstein & Joan Finkelstein, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, Michael Kushner & Carol Dauman, MASS MoCA, Henry S. McNeil,

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Jeremy Mindich & Amy Smith, Elizabeth Murrell & Gary Haney, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Community Trust, New York State Council on the Arts (with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature), New Spectrum Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Scopia Capital Management, Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music, Paul Simon, Matthew Sirovich & Meredith Elson, Maria & Robert A. Skirnick, Jane & Dick Stewart, Williamson Foundation, Adam Wolfensohn & Jennifer Small, Trust for Mutual Understanding, U.S Department of State, and Wolfensohn Family Foundation.

THE KNIGHTS AND BRYCE DESSNERMusic by Bryce Dessner

October 15, 2014 | 7:30 PMThe Winter Garden at Brookfield Place New York

THE KNIGHTSColin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen, Artistic Directors

“Tenebre” (2010)Performed by The Knights

“Lachrimae” (2012)Performed by The Knights

“Raphael” (2007)Performed by Bryce Dessner (Electric Guitar), Geremy Schulick (Electric Guitar) and The Knights

BRYCE DESSNERBryce Dessner is a Brooklyn-based composer, guitarist, and curator who is also a member of the Grammy Award-nominated band The National. In addition to his work with The National, Dessner has made a name for himself as an acclaimed composer, working with some of the world’s most creative and respected musicians. Dessner's recent commissions include pieces for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Audiovisual Institute of Poland, the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet and the new music ensemble eighth blackbird, among others. The first recordings of Dessner's compositions, performed by the Kronos Quartet, were released in 2013 by Anti- on an album entitled "Aheym." In 2014 Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Classics released "St Carolyn By the Sea; Suite from There Will Be Blood," which features three of Dessner's orchestral works performed by the Copenhagen Philharmonic and conducted by Andre de Ridder. Dessner is also the founder and artistic director of the annual MusicNOW Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, which will present its tenth season this March. In addition, Bryce and his brother Aaron produced the Red Hot Organization’s extensive AIDS charity compilation, Dark was the Night, which has raised over 2 million dollars for AIDS charities. Dessner is also a composer-in-residence at Muziekgebouw Eindhoven.

GEREMY SCHULICKBrooklyn-based cross-genre guitarist and composer Geremy Schulick is best known for his indie instrumental band Threefifty, with whom he has recorded three studio albums, performed at venues such as Crossing Brooklyn Ferry at BAM, TEDxCMU, WNYC’s Soundcheck, The NY Guitar Festival, The Englert, Givens Performing Arts Center, SXSW, and played tours of the UK, Austria, and Bosnia. As a freelance guitarist highlights include performing with Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the electric guitar quartet Dither, and The Oracle Hysterical. Geremy earned his master’s from Yale where he studied classical guitar with Benjamin Verdery and was awarded with the Eliot Fisk Prize. Geremy is proud to be a part of the D’Addario artist family.

THE KNIGHTSThe Knights are an orchestral collective, flexible in size and repertory, dedicated to transforming the concert experience. Engaging listeners and defying boundaries with programs that showcase the players’ roots in the classical tradition and passion for musical discovery, The Knights have, as the New Yorker observes, “become one of Brooklyn’s sterling cultural products, [and] are known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory.”

The Knights’ 2014-15 season kicks off with a performance at Brooklyn’s Roulette, marking the first of a series of New York City residencies to be undertaken by the group over the next three seasons with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Other highlights include the Caramoor Fall Festival, where The Knights serve as curators and give three performances featuring saxophonist Joshua Redman and violinist Gil Shaham; the ensemble’s debut at Carnegie Hall in the New York premiere of the Steven Stucky/Jeremy Denk opera The Classical Style; a collaboration with The National’s Bryce Dessner, broadcast on WNYC’s New Sounds Live; and a residency at the University of Georgia. In the new year, The Knights tour the East Coast with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck before embarking on a European tour with soprano Dawn Upshaw, featuring performances in Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Darmstadt, and at Vienna’s legendary Musikverein.

Recent season highlights include The Knights’ debut at the Tanglewood and Ojai Music Festivals, and collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Dawn Upshaw, Jeremy Denk, the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Joshua Redman Quartet, santur player Siamak Aghaei, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man, and the creation of the ensemble’s first original group composition. Recordings include an all-Beethoven disc released in January 2013 by Sony Classical (their third project with the label), and 2012’s “smartly programmed” (NPR) A Second of Silence for Ancalagon.

The Knights evolved from late-night chamber music reading parties with friends at the home of violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen. The Jacobsen brothers, who are also founding members of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, serve as artistic directors of The Knights, with Eric Jacobsen as conductor. In December 2012, the Jacobsens were selected from among the nation’s top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship.

The Knights’ roster boasts remarkably diverse talents, including composers, arrangers, singer-songwriters, and improvisers, who bring a range of cultural influences to the group, from jazz and klezmer to pop and indie rock music. The unique camaraderie within the group retains the intimacy and spontaneity of chamber music in performance. www.TheKnightsNYC.com

The Knights’ New York performance season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

WORDLESS MUSIC ORCHESTRA AND GREY MCMURRAY“Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield in a New Arrangement by Grey Mcmurray

October 16, 2014 | 7:30 PMThe Winter Garden at Brookfield Place New York

WORDLESS MUSIC ORCHESTRA Grey Mcmurray, Guitar/Voice/Arranger Olga Bell, Keyboards/VoiceCaleb Burhans, Violin/CasioJustin Carroll, Piano/KeyboardClarice Jensen, CelloChris Morrissey, Bass/VocalsQasim Naqvi, Drums/Glockenspiel/BellsAaron Roche, Guitar/Voice

with special guest John Schaefer, Narrator

Richie Clarke, Sound EngineerRonen Givony, Producer

“Tubular Bells” by the English musician Mike Oldfield was released in 1973 when he was only 19 years old. The composition’s opening piano solo was used in the soundtrack to The Exorcist, gaining the album considerable airplay because of the film’s success. The entire work is an ambitious, almost symphonic set of variations on a theme and is replete with good cheer and a bit of droll British wit.

WORDLESS MUSIC ORCHESTRA Wordless Music Orchestra is the house band of New York City's Wordless Music series, which was founded by non-musician Ronen Givony in 2006 and has since presented concerts in museums, churches, nightclubs, and out of doors, pairing artists from the sound worlds of so-called classical, electronic, and rock music. Comprising some of New York's most omnivorous young musicians, and members of groups such as Alarm Will Sound, ACME, and Ensemble Signal, the orchestra presented its first concerts over two sold-out nights in January 2008 under

conductor Brad Lubman with the U.S. premiere of composer and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver, on a program with music of Gavin Bryars and John Adams.

In 2009, Arvo Pärt's Symphony No. 4 ("Los Angeles") had its New York/East Coast premiere by the Wordless Music Orchestra under conductor Jeffrey Milarsky in two sold-out concerts at which the orchestra also performed alongside the Japanese instrumental noise-rock band MONO. These performances with MONO were recorded and released by Brooklyn’s Temporary Residence label as Holy Ground: NYC Live with the Wordless Music Orchestra, a limited-edition CD/DVD/LP set. Also in 2009, the orchestra recorded with Tyondai Braxton for Central Market, the composer's solo debut on Warp Records, and went on tour the following year with Braxton to Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

In 2010, the Wordless Music Orchestra performed alongside the Hilliard Ensemble and Latvian National Choir as part of Lincoln Center's inaugural White Light Festival, in world premiere compositions for orchestra and voices by Kjartan Sveinsson and Jónsi Birgisson of Sigur Rós with his partner, Alex Somers, and the following year at the Guggenheim Museum rotunda in a unique collaboration with visual artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster for Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic.

On September 11, 2011, the Wordless Music Orchestra performed a memorial concert for the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the world premiere orchestration of William Basinski's Disintegration Loop 1.1 and music by Alfred Schnittke, Osvaldo Golijov, and Ingram Marshall. Also in the 2012 season, the orchestra returned to the Met Museum to play with the Danish indie-pop band Efterklang, performed the U.S. premiere of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's The Miners' Hymns along with a film by Bill Morrison at Brookfield Place New York, and performed with young composer and songwriter Jherek Bischoff as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival.

In 2013, the orchestra performed a world premiere live score to the film Beasts of the Southern Wild with the film's director and

composer, Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer, for an outdoor audience of 7,000 at Prospect Park in Brooklyn; with the legendary Kranky ambient duo Stars of the Lid, for the group's farewell NYC performance at Brooklyn's Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help; with the UK electronic band Goldfrapp for the group's album release show at the Beacon Theatre; and with musical icon John Cale for songs from Cale's classic album Paris 1919, as part of the BAM Next Wave Festival.

In 2014, in addition to their performance at Brookfield Place, the Wordless Music Orchestra will perform live with Jonny Greenwood at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, in two live film score performances to Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and at London's Barbican Centre for the European premiere of Beasts of the Southern Wild live.

In 2015, the orchestra will perform the NYC premieres of two live film scores - Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and Pablo Berger's Blancanieves - and will reprise its collaboration with Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer for an encore performance of Beasts of the Southern Wild at Symphony Space in New York.

www.Wordlessmusic.org

GREY MCMURRAY Grey Mcmurray is a guitar player and singer based in Brooklyn, NY. He has performed and/or recorded with Meshell Ndegeocello, Tyondai Braxton, Shara Worden, John Cale, Gil-Scott Heron, Chromeo, Shara Worden, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, Larry Campbell, Colin Stetson and Arooj Aftab among many others. He is a member of the trio Tongues In Trees along with Sunny Jain and Samita Sinha. He also co-leads itsnotyouitsme with Caleb Burhans. They have released four albums on New Amsterdam Records, most recently, This I, featuring Skúli Sverrisson and Theo Bleckmann. He is a frequent collaborator with So Percussion, most recently on the evening length work and Cantaloupe album, where (we) live. He hopes everyday to provoke joyful tears in strangers’ eyes.

Piano for this performance provided by

Arts Brookfield presents exciting, world-class cultural experiences to hundreds of thousands of people for free each year in both indoor and outdoor public spaces at Brookfield’s premier office properties in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Houston, Toronto, Perth and Sydney. From concerts, theater and dance to film screenings and art exhibitions, Arts Brookfield brings public spaces to life through art.

Through December 2014, Arts Brookfield celebrates its 25th Anniversary through an interactive initiative, Art Set Free. The public is invited to submit original artworks of all kinds for digital display at Brookfield’s office properties around the globe and on ArtsBrookfield25.com.

Americans for the Arts has named Brookfield and Arts Brookfield a BCA 10 2014 honoree, Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America.

STAFFDebra Simon V.P. & Artistic Director Allan Abrams Technical Director Tara Davis Marketing CoordinatorJasmine Johnson Production ManagerKaren Kitchen Producing Director Elysa Marden Producing Director Aaron Miller Events ManagerLindsey Power Administrative Assistant Caitlin Warfield Marketing & Events Coordinator Dalis Wilson Financial Administrator Rebecca Zuber Production Director

Additional support provided by

Coming Th i s Win t e rEcstaticMusicFestival.com