BANG ON A CAN: THE POWER OF PICTURES to Feature Robert Black and More at The Jewish Museum, 11/5

On Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 7:30pm, Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum will present Bang on a Can: The Power of Pictures, a concert celebrating composers who were isolated behind the Iron Curtain and had to develop their own unique ways of pushing musical boundaries.

Bassist and founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Robert Black, will be joined by violinist Katie Lansdale, Bang on a Can All-Star cellist Ashley Bathgate, pianist Marko Stuparevic, percussionist Mike Jones, and the Hartt Bass Band in a program of chamber music by experimental Russian composers Arthur-Vincent Lourié, Yuri Kasparov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, Rifat Komachkov, and Galina Ustvolskaya. A highlight of the program is a rare performance of Ustvolskaya's relentless Composition No. 2 for piano, eight double basses, and one giant cube of wood.

This is the second year of the Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can's partnership, producing dynamic musical performances inspired by the Museum's diverse slate of exhibitions. The series will include five programs throughout the year, primarily in the Jewish Museum's Scheuer Auditorium (Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street). The season began with a free outdoor performance by DJ Spooky at the Museum Mile Festival on June 9 and a July 9 concert by innovative violinist-composer Todd Reynolds in conjunction with the Museum's exhibition Repetition and Difference. Upcoming concerts include Unorthodox featuring the Mivos Quartet playing music by Steve Reich (February 4), and Brazil Gardens and Beyond (May 12), featuring the ever-innovative Brazilian-New Yorker Arto Lindsay.

From early vanguard constructivist works by Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky, to the modernist images of Arkady Shaikhet and Max Penson, Soviet photographers played a pivotal role in the history of modern photography. The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film examines how photography, film, and poster art were harnessed to disseminate Communist ideology, revisiting a moment in history when artists acted as engines of social change and radical political engagement. Covering the period from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution through the 1930s, the exhibition explores how early modernist photography and film influenced a new Soviet style while energizing and expanding the nature of the media. Through nearly 180 works, The Power of Pictures reveals how striking images by master photographers and filmmakers were seen as powerful propaganda tools in the new Soviet Union. Their shared radical aesthetic in a moment of profound social transformation are also examined. Looking at photography and film together as influential and formally related media, the exhibition will be on view at the Jewish Museum through February 7, 2016.

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. Black is a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Additional chamber music activities include performances with the Ciompi and Miami String Quartets and annual appearances at the Moab Music Festival. Robert 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. 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. Black 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

The Hartt Bass Band is a unique group of double bass players who are currently studying with Robert Black at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford. The members are graduate and undergraduate students from around the world. The current members are Dennis Baraw, Isaac Gadikian, Christopher Hernandez, Kevin Huhn, Krista Kopper, Lindsay Rosenberg, Zaschary Rowden and special guests Mike Jones and Marko Stuperavic.

Tickets for the November 5, February 4, and May 12 programs are $18 general public; $15 students and senior citizens; and $12 for Jewish Museum members and Bang on a Can list members, and include exhibition admission prior to the performance. Further program and ticket information is available by calling 212.423.3337 or at TheJewishMuseum.org/calendar. The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, Manhattan.

Bang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Founded by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, who curatored the first Marathon concert in 1987 and remain co-Artistic Directors to this day, 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 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). 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; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a professional development program for young musicians; Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can's extreme street band; and Found Sound Nation, a musical outreach program partnering with the U.S. State Department to create OneBeat, a program that bridges the gulf between young American musicians and young musicians from developing countries. For more information, visit www.bangonacan.org.

Located on Museum Mile at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, the Jewish Museum is one of the world's preeminent institutions devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary, offering intellectually engaging, educational, and provocative exhibitions and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary as the core of a museum collection. Today, the Museum maintains a collection of over 30,000 works of art, artifacts, and broadcast media reflecting global Jewish identity, and presents a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed temporary exhibitions.

The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City. Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to 4pm. Museum admission is $15.00 for adults, $12.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for visitors 18 and under and Jewish Museum members. Admission is Pay What You Wish on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm and free on Saturdays. For information on the Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3200 or visit the website at www.thejewishmuseum.org.