Bang on a Can and The Jewish Museum Present Vicky Chow in Tristan Perich's Surface Image

On Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 7:30pm, Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum will present the final concert of their 2016-2017 concert season featuring Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow. Chow will perform Tristan Perich's Surface Image for solo piano, a monumental performance and installation with 40-channel 1-bit electronics, echoing the shimmering quality of Paris' 19th century arcades and inspired by Walter Benjamin's renowned essay "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Chow's recording of Perich's Surface Image, acclaimed for it's "surreal, cacophonous beauty" (The New York Times), was listed #4 in Rolling Stone's 20 Best Avant Albums of 2014. The performance takes place alongside the Jewish Museum's current exhibition, The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin, which examines themes in Benjamin's magnum opus The Arcades Project via contemporary artworks in media ranging from photography and video to sculpture and painting, with annotations by the American poet Kenneth Goldsmith.

Walter Benjamin is widely regarded as one of the most astute commentators on early European modernity. He began The Arcades Project in 1927 as a short piece about Paris's nineteenth-century iron-and-glass vaulted shopping passages (arcades) and expanded it into a lengthy meditation on Parisian city life and the origins of consumer culture. Benjamin worked on the project for over a decade, leaving it unfinished at the time of his death by suicide while fleeing the Nazis in 1940. The book, published posthumously, is a sprawling collage of quotations, notes, and reflections on the city of Paris, which Benjamin regarded as the cultural and commercial capital of the nineteenth century. The exhibition explores The Arcades Project and its ongoing relevance by highlighting contemporary artworks that relate to the subjects of each of the book's 36 chapters, called convolutes. These subjects range from fashion to iron construction, from dolls to Karl Marx, and from the streets of Paris to the flâneur.

Canadian pianist Vicky Chow has been described as "brilliant" (The New York Times), "a monster pianist" (Time Out New York), and "new star of new music" (Los Angeles Times). She is the pianist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Grand Band, New Music Detroit, and has collaborated with other ensembles such as the International Contemporary Ensemble. In addition to Tristan Perich's Surface Image, recent recordings include Steve Reich's Piano Counterpoint (Nonesuch), AORTA (New Amsterdam Records, November 2016) featuring six new works by American composers such as Rome prize winners Andy Akiho and Christopher Cerrone, and an EP of a solo piano work by Bang on a Can founder Michael Gordon titled Sonatra on Cantaloupe Music in January 2017. Starting the piano at age 5, Chow was invited to perform at the age of 9 at the InternationAl Gilmore Music Keyboard Festival. She made her orchestral debut at the age of 10 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and made her New York orchestral debut appearance at Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Symphony performing Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 1. Chow resides in Brooklyn.

The 2016-2017 season marks the third 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. This season includes five programs, primarily in the Jewish Museum's Scheuer Auditorium. So far, the season has included a free outdoor performance by Mariachi Flor de Toloache at the June 14 Museum Mile Festival, a July 14 concert featuring clarinetist Don Byron, and a November 10 concert by the late Pauline Oliveros, and a February 16 concert by Florent Ghys' low string quartet with percussion, Bonjour.

Tickets for the April 27 program 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, NYC.

Support
Public Programming at the Jewish Museum is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

About Bang on a Can
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.

About the Jewish Museum
Located on New York City's famed Museum Mile, the Jewish Museum is a distinctive hub for art and Jewish culture for people of all backgrounds. Founded in 1904, the Museum was the first institution of its kind in the United States and is one of the oldest Jewish museums in the world. Devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary, the Museum offers intellectually engaging exhibitions and programs, and maintains a unique collection of nearly 30,000 works of art, ceremonial objects, and media reflecting the global Jewish experience over more than 4,000 years.