Bang on a Can Marathon
$45
Michael Gordon — Light is Calling
Morgan Henderson — Wave Piece
David Lang — Sunray
Michael Gordon — Yo Shakespeare
Julia Wolfe / Kristina Wolfe — Big Beautiful Dark and Scary
Gust Burns / Greg Campbell — Performance and Sonic Obstruction of Sounds (5a)
Steve Reich — Music for 18 Musicians
Jherek Bischoff — Selected works
Eyvind Kang — Selected works
Jim Knapp — Selected works
Shabazz Palaces — Selected works
NYC’s celebrated music collective takes over the Moore Theatre with their incomparable super-mix of boundary-busting music from around the corner and around the world! The Bang on a Can Marathon at the Moore Theatre is a 6-hour festival of innovative music featuring some of the most pioneering local and national musicians in classical, rock, hip-hop, jazz, electronic, and musics yet-to-be categorized.
Highlights include New York’s electric chamber band Bang on a Can All-Stars and red fish blue fish (UC San Diego) performing the Seattle premiere of Steve Reich's masterwork Music for 18 Musicians, Bang on a Can’s renowned live performance of Brian Eno's ambient classic Music for Airports, an exceptional indie-orchestral collaboration featuring Seattle multi-instrumentalist/composer Jherek Bischoff with Scrape Ensemble and composer Jim Knapp, a new electronic offering from multi-experimental Morgan Henderson, other-wordly duo Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney, piano-percussion pair Gust Burns and Greg Campbell, the “honed and primal, chromed and primo sonic action” of Shabazz Palaces, Seattle premieres of signature works by Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and more!
Program:
Set times are approximate and subject to change
4pm
Brian Eno’s Music for Airports – Bang on a Can All-Stars
Eyvind Kang & Jessika Kenney
Michael Gordon’s Light is Calling – Ashley Bathgate, cello
6pm
Wave Piece – Morgan Henderson
David Lang’s Sunray – Bang on a Can All-Stars
Michael Gordon’s Yo Shakespeare – Bang on a Can All-Stars
Julia Wolfe’s Big, Beautiful, Dark, and Scary – Bang on a Can All-Stars
Performance and Sonic Obstruction of Sounds (5a) – Gust Burns & Greg Campbell
Shabazz Palaces
8pm
New Work by Jim Knapp – Jherek Bischoff & Scrape Ensemble
New Work by Jherek Bischoff – Jherek Bischoff & Scrape Ensemble
Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians – Bang on a Can All-Stars & red fish blue fish
About Bang on a Can Marathon
Composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe created the first Bang on a Can Marathon concert in NY in 1987 in order to break down the barriers that separate musical communities. Their idea was simple: instead of sorting music by style, genre, or venue it would be more powerful to group music by innovation, finding the rebels in each musical community, the restless creators not content to leave conventions unchallenged. Putting all of these fresh voices back to back on one gargantuan concert would allow the audience to experience the excitement of the innovation and breadth of vision. Their first Marathon, in the Exit Art Gallery in Soho, featured appearances by such leading lights as Steve Reich, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros and Milton Babbitt, alongside music by young composers whose musical voice had no home.
Since then the marathons have included an astounding range of revolutionary music and musicians, from John Cage to John Zorn, from minimalism's godfather Terry Riley to Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, from the 30-voice Finnish shouting choir Huutajat to the hyper-intelligent brutality of Iannis Xenakis, from the eastern minimalism of Arvo Pärt to the indie-rock stylings of Kaki King, from the brainy rituals of Karlheinz Stockhausen to the turntable manipulations of artist Christian Marclay and the pulsing electronic beats of Dan Deacon, alongside the new voices of hundreds of younger and unknown composers. It is in the range of these musics that one sees how big the world really is, and how big it can be.
NOTE: A big reason for us deciding to present the Bang on a Can Marathon to Seattle is because there's such a rich history and so much interesting and innovative music here. It was hard not to make the concert twice as long! A big part of this kind of festival concert is bringing together musicians from many backgrounds, genres, hopefully making some new introductions among artists and audiences in Seattle as well as introducing Seattle artists and audiences to some of the New York scene. This kind of concert is a perfect match in Seattle and we’re really excited that we could finally do this here. - Kenny Savelson, Executive Director, Bang on a Can