Lincoln Center Celebrates Bang on a Can's 25th Birthday Tonight

Lincoln Center will celebrate the 25th birthday of New York's tirelessly inventive new music institution Bang on a Can with musical fireworks in an extraordinary three-part program that will include a U.S. and a New York premiere today, April 28, at 7 PM in Alice Tully Hall. Over the years, beginning with the Bang on a Can Marathon in 1994, Lincoln Center has regularly presented Bang on a Can performances.

Tickets: Tickets go on sale on February 16, priced at $35, $45, and $50. Tickets will be available online at LincolnCenter.org, by calling CenterCharge at 212-721-6500 or by visiting the Alice Tully Hall box office on Broadway and 65th Street. Ticket prices are subject to change.

The April 28 concert begins at 7 PM with a blend of ancient tradition and modern technology when Gamelan Galak Tika performs Tire Fire, its signature piece, composed in 1995 by its director - composer/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn, a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. The piece combines the shimmering beauty of traditional Balinese gamelan with the virtuosity and raw power of electric guitars, climaxing in a blast of sonic energy.

The exuberant Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can's radical street band, will then perform the New York premiere of a new work by composer/percussionist Tatsuya Yoshida, founder and primary force behind the renowned progressive rock duo Ruins. Tatsuya Yoshida will perform live with the band.

Asphalt Orchestra will be followed by the U.S. premiere of Field Recordings, with specially commissioned new music by some of the world's most questioning musical thinkers from the indie pop world (Tyondai Braxton, Florent Ghys, Nick Zammuto from The Books), the art world (Christian Marclay), electronica (Mira Calix) and experimental classical (Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Evan Ziporyn), performed by the renowned electric chamber group, the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Joining them for the concert will be Mira Calix, Christian Marclay, and Nick Zammuto. Using film, found sound, and archival audio and video, Field Recordings builds a bridge between the seen and the unseen, the present and absent, the present and the past – a concert enhanced by conceptual set designer Jim Findlay.

BNY Mellon is a Proud Sponsor of Great Performers

According to Kenny Savelson, Executive Director of Bang on a Can, "Field Recordings, as much a mystery as a concert, is a kind of ghost story. The ghosts aren't the physical presence of people gone before, but the ghosts of sounds, images, ideas, and voices. Each composer has been asked to find and interact with something recorded before, using the power of music made right in front of us to reach out to other things not present. Using film, found sound and archival audio and video, Field Recordings builds a bridge between the seen and the unseen, the present and absent, the present and the past.

Over the past 25 years Bang on a Can (BOAC) has enjoyed a long relationship with Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, beginning with the BOAC Marathons in Alice Tully Hall, 1994-1997. The Bang on Can All-Stars also performed at Lincoln Center several times. Highlights include March 1998, when the All-Stars premiered its arrangements of Brian Eno's Music for Airports; they returned in March 1999 to collaborate with Meredith Monk; February 2002, with Don Byron and Kyaw Kyaw Naing; May 2004, with Terry Riley as part of the Andriessen Festival, Sonic Evolutions; and in March 2009, with Glenn Kotche and a new work by Michael Gordon commissioned by Lincoln Center (as well as works by David Lang and Julia Wolfe) as part of the festival celebrating the re-opening of Alice Tully Hall.

More recently, Lincoln Center Out of Doors presented Asphalt Orchestra over 10 packed nights in the summers of 2009 and 2010.

BOAC is celebrating its 25th birthday in 2011-2012 with performances around the world featuring an array of acclaimed projects from past years, plus brand new adventures. Bang on a Can performances this season take place in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, London, Glasgow, various cities in Germany and Russia, and in many places off the beaten path in between.

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