Bang on a Can to Launch Inaugural Bang on a Can Music Institute at NCCA, 2/23-27

The "relentlessly inventive" (New York Magazine) new music collective Bang on a Can continues its mission to create an international community dedicated to innovative music in Moscow, Russia from February 23-27, 2014, when it partners with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for The Bang on a Can Music Institute at the National Center for Contemporary Arts (NCCA). The five-day, hands-on initiative brings together eleven Russian musicians with the renowned Bang on a Can All-Stars for an intense program dedicated entirely to the performance of adventurous contemporary music. The Institute kicks off and culminates with performances by the Bang on a Can All-Stars at Strasnoy Theater on February 23 and February 27. Additionally, the All-Stars will be performing a special, joint concert with PRO ARTE eNsemble in St. Petersburg at the Alexandrinsky Theatre on Saturday, March 1. This will be the third visit by the Bang on a Can All-Stars to Russia, where they last performed in March 2012.

The Bang on a Can Music Institute in Moscow is a five-day residency that will bring together eleven performers from across Russia who have been selected to participate in a program that emphasizes musical collaboration through workshops, seminars, rehearsals, and performances featuring the young Russian musicians (called "fellows") playing side-by-side with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who are among today's leading and innovative contemporary American musicians. The Bang on a Can All-Stars have dedicated their lives to commissioning, rehearsing, recording and performing music beyond the cutting edge and are delighted with the opportunity to work alongside Russia's like-minded musicians.

The Bang on a Can Music Institute in Moscow is a community-building partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the NCCA, bringing the creative and cooperative ethos of Bang on a Can's annual Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA to Moscow. In addition to its immediate value for the participating musicians who will learn from their immersion in contemporary American music from master performers, the Bang on a Can Institute in Moscow offers promise for peaceful engagement, defying boundaries, bringing together musicians, composers, and audiences from across borders and around the world to create long-lasting musical friendships.

The eleven musician fellows selected to participate in the first Bang on a Can Music Institute in Moscow are Maria Alikhanova, flute; Maria Sadurnidova, piano; Anton Izgagin, double bass; Anna Gelyuk, percussion; Elizaveta Koshkina, violin; Mikhail Krutik, violin; Valeriy Masterov, cello; Alexander Pilchen, violin; Serj Poltavski, viola; Dmitriy Radzetckiy, guitar; Artur Zobnin, violin. See the end of this press release for biographical information.

Since shortly after its inception in 1987 Bang on a Can has been producing international events annually, bringing the spirit of its renowned Marathon programs abroad to festivals and venues worldwide. Over the last 20 years, the All-Stars have appeared annually throughout Europe's most prestigious concert halls and festivals, as well as in Australia and Asia, and have toured three times to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. In addition, Bang on a Can's Found Sound Nation, a new technology-based musical outreach program, is now partnering with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in OneBeat, an initiative that brings musicians from around the world for a residency and tour program in the U.S.

The New York Times reported, "[Bang on a Can's] impact has been profound and pervasive. The current universe of do-it-yourself concert series, genre-flouting festivals, composer-owned record labels and amplified, electric-guitar-driven compositional idioms would probably not exist without their pioneering example."

The Bang on a Can All-Stars' visit to Moscow will begin and end with innovative concert programs that illustrate the Bang on a Can "sound:"

February 23, 2014 at Strasnoy Theater, Moscow
Bang on a Can All-Stars: UNPOP
Julia Wolfe: Lick
Lukas Ligeti: Glamour Girl
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction
Brian Eno: Music for Airports 1/1 (arr. Michael Gordon)
Louis Andriessen: Workers Union

New York's electric chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars return to Moscow with a high-energy concert program of adventurous sound that defies the boundaries between contemporary jazz, rock, and classical music. The immediacy of the rhythm, the intensity of the sound, even the instruments of pop music have bled into the world of Bang on a Can since its inception. In UNPOP the All-Stars play music that shows how ideas from American popular music including jazz, rock, swing, have filtered into and combined with traditional classical music and other musical expressions from around the world. Following up on the excitement of their acclaimed concert in Moscow in 2012, Bang on a Can's program on February 23 features works by some of today's most innovative composers including Julia Wolfe, Lukas Ligeti, Steve Martland, Dutch Master Louis Andriessen, and their celebrated live arrangement of Brian Eno's ambient classic Music for Airports.

February 27, 2014 at Strasnoy Theater, Moscow
Bang on a Can Meets Moscow
David Lang: These Broken Wings
Michael Gordon: Weather 1
Steve Reich: 2x5
Meredith Monk: Panda Chant 1
Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together

For 27 years, Bang on a Can's music programs have defied boundaries, bringing together musicians, composers, and audiences from multiple genres of music, from across borders and around the world. Bang on a Can Meets Moscow is the thrilling final concert of a five-day intensive collaboration between New York's renowned Bang on a Can All-Stars and eleven extraordinary young musicians from Russia. The program includes American Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang's These Broken Wings, featured on the 2013 Grammy Awards and quickly becoming recognized as one of the modern American masterpieces; Michael Gordon's Weather 1, a rough-edged and intense chamber symphony for string orchestra to be performed by an amazing ensemble of young Russian string players together with the Bang on a Can All-Stars; America's legendary composer Steve Reich's 2x5, a "double rock quintet" for electric guitars, bass, piano, and drums; Frederic Rzewski's influential piece Coming Together, a heavy, gyrating work for large ensemble plus text from prisoner Sam Miller's account of the infamous Attica prison uprising, now recognized as an American master work from the 1970s; and more.

March 1, 2014 at Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
Bang on a Can All-Stars & PRO ARTE eNsemble

PRO ARTE eNsemble
David Lang: Sweet Air
Michael Gordon: AC/DC

Bang on a Can All-Stars
Julia Wolfe: Lick
Lukas Ligeti: Glamour Girl
Brian Eno: Music for Airports 1/1 (arr. Michael Gordon)
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction

New York's electric chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars return to St. Petersburg for the first time in ten years with a high-energy concert program of adventurous sound that defies the boundaries between contemporary jazz, rock, and classical music. Teaming up with the acclaimed PRO ARTE eNsemble of St. Petersburg, the All-Stars play music that shows how ideas from American popular music including jazz, rock, and experimental traditions have filtered into and combined with traditional classical music including music by some of today's most innovative leading composers including Michael Gordon, David Lang, Lukas Ligeti, Steve Martland, Julia Wolfe, and Bang on a Can's celebrated live arrangement of Brian Eno's ambient classic Music for Airports.