June 26, 2003

MASS MoCA's Bang on a Can Summer Festival Closing Concert July 26

(North Adams, Mass.) On Saturday, July 26 at 4 P.M., MASS MoCA and Bang on a Can will close out the second annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute & Festival with a Bang on a Can Marathon in the Hunter Center. The Marathon will include brand new work created over the course of the two-week Institute by the world-class musicians, composers, and teachers and their hand-picked students who participated. Participants will be on hand to discuss their work, including this year's featured guest composer Louis Andriessen. The Albany Times Union described last year's nearly sold-out Marathon: "The institute came to a roaring climax in a sprawling concert of contemporary music that was consistently challenging and nearly always richly rewarding." The series of performances runs from 4 to 10 P.M. Patrons may feel free to come and go throughout the Marathon.

"A New York tradition, the Marathon was a great addition to MASS MoCA's 2002 summer schedule and we're looking forward to this year's event," commented Jonathan Secor, MASS MoCA's director of performing arts. "You never know what will happen musically, and the non-stop music is a great complement to a gallery visit. Guests can come and go, enjoy a drink or a bite to eat or take a stroll through the galleries. It's a really special event that we're delighted to be able to bring to the area again this year."

The teachers/performers also include Bang on a Can founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe who all share an OBIE award for Carbon Copy Building, which was performed at MASS MoCA in 2000; the Bang on a Can All-Stars include Robert Black (bass); David Cossin (percussion); Lisa Moore (piano); Mark Stewart (guitar); Wendy Sutter (cello); and Evan Ziporyn (clarinet).

Born into a prominent Dutch family of composers, Louis Andriessen studied composition at an early age with his father Hendrik, before going on to study with Kees van Barren at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. After winning the Conservatory's prize for composition, he went to Milan and later Berlin to study with Luciano Berio. His substantial list of awards includes the Selected Work at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize (twice), the prestigious 3M Music Award, and the Edison Award. He served as Artistic Director of the Meltdown Festival in London and founded two new music ensembles, the wind ensemble Orkest de Volharding and the amplified ensemble Hoketus. He's written a book on Stravinsky, The Apollonian Clockwork.

Composers and co-artistic directors Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe founded Bang on a Can in 1987. Their original idea was simple: to have fun with new music. Their bold programming concept incorporates performing visionary classics written two to three decades ago and pieces by composers just born at that time -- exciting music by our best known living composers and by those only starting to gain recognition. Bang on a Can has grown from a one-day festival to a multifaceted organization. Bang on a Can aims to discover emerging composers and ensembles who are exploring new musical territories, reaching for a musical expression beyond the status quo.

Michael Gordon was raised in Nicaragua in an Eastern European community on the outskirts of Managua. His music is an outgrowth of his experience with underground rock bands in New York and formal composition studies at Yale. His work has been performed at The Kitchen in New York, the Edinburgh Festival, London's South Bank Centre, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center and BBC Proms. His work has been commissioned by the new Ensemble Modern Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, and Ensemble Modern.

Composer-in-residence at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, David Lang's work has been commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Singers, and the American Composers Orchestra. The Kronos Quartet, the New York Philharmonic, and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble have performed his work. His work has been played at Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals, in theater productions in New York, San Francisco, and London, and in the choreography of Twyla Tharp, Susan Marshall, The Alvin Ailey Company and the Royal Ballet. Lang's awards include the Rome Prize, the BMW Music-Theater Prize (Munich), a Kennedy Center/Friedheim Award, the Revson Fellowship with the New York Philharmonic, and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Julia Wolfe holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and Residential College at the University of Michigan. She's received commissions from the Kronos Quartet, the American Composers Orchestra, the Koussevitzky Foundation for the Cassatt Quartet, Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest, Orkest de volharding, the Huddersfield Festival, the Pan American Chamber Players, and the Rotterdam Arts Council. Her works have been played by the San Francisco Symphony, California EAR Unit, Margaret Leng Tan, and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Wolfe's works have been choreographed by Eliot Feld, Doug Varone, and the Dusselforf Ballet. She composed music for Anna Deaver Smith's play House Arrest. Her awards include a Charles Ives Scholarship, an Academy Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Foundation grants, a fellowship at Princeton University, residency at the MacDowell Colony and Djerassi Institute, and a Fulbright fellowship.

The concert is sponsored by The Berkshire Eagle.

Tickets for Bang on a Can Marathon are $20. A special discounted $5 gallery admission ticket is available for Marathon ticket-holders. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall St. in North Adams from 10 A.M. until 6 P.M. daily. Tickets can also be charged by phone at 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or on line at www.massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall St. in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org