Loadbang: “Tombeau” at St. Paul’s Chapel

loadbang will be presenting a program titled Tombeau, featuring a world premieres of works by Michael Hersch and Eva-Maria Houben as well as pieces by Raven Chacon and Eli Greenhoe. loadbang will be joined by Miranda Cuckson (violin) and Will Yager (bass) for Michael Hersch’s new work.

Michael Hersch composed his new work, ‘that I wanted to find you here’ in the period immediately following his recovery from a near-death experience early last year. The work sets texts by Abdellatif Laâbi, Anja Utler, Stav Poleg, and Shane McCrae.

Says Hersch, “In many respects, ‘that I wanted to find you here,’ commissioned by loadbang, is very much in dialogue with my recent opera ‘and we, each,’ but instead of an attempt to engage with the broader currents of and within relationships, this new sextet cuts directly into personal spaces… The most terrifying part of the ordeal was not, in fact, landing on that line between life and death, but simply the lack of agency and day-to-day clarity during that emergent period upon stepping back from it; restriction, confusion, and misapplication of power reigning overall. These things still haunt…”

New York City-based new music chamber group loadbang is building a new kind of music for mixed ensemble of trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, and baritone voice. Since their founding in 2008, they have been praised as ‘cultivated’ by The New Yorker, ‘an extra-cool new music group’ and ‘exhilarating’ by the Baltimore Sun, ‘inventive’ by the New York Times and called a ‘formidable new-music force’ by TimeOutNY. Creating ‘a sonic world unlike any other’ (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), their unique lung-powered instrumentation has provoked diverse responses from composers, resulting in a repertoire comprising an inclusive picture of composition today. In New York City, they have been recently presented by and performed at Miller Theater, Symphony Space, MATA, and by the Look and Listen Festival; on American tours at Da Camera of Houston, Rothko Chapel, and the Festival of New American Music at Sacramento State University; and internationally at Ostrava Days (Czech Republic), China-ASEAN Music Week (China), the Xinghai Conservatory of Music (China), Shanghai Symphony Hall (China), Visiones Sonoras Festival (Morelia, Mexico), and the Musikverein (Vienna, Austria).

Live at St. Paul’s Chapel — or, watch on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/live/bFprxcEkKa4

If you don’t have a current Columbia ID, you MUST register. Registration will close at 11am sharp on Friday, December 6.