$15
Sun., October 03, 2010 / 6:30 PM
Audio / Video
Gallery
About This Event
Minimum Age:
All AgesDoors Open:
6:30 PMShow Time:
7:30 PMDescription:
Program:
Stronghold, for 8 double basses (performed by Robert Black and the Hartt Bass Band)
LAD, for 9 bagpipes (performed solo with accompanying pre-recorded bagpipes by Matthew Welch)
Dig Deep, for string quartet (performed by the JACK Quartet)
Description:
The Music of Julia Wolfe
with Jack Quartet, Hartt Bass Band, and Matthew Welch (bagpipes)
Julia Wolfe, cofounder of Bang on a Can, comes to LPR with three passionate works for 8 double basses, string quartet, and bagpipes. Wolfe's music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. In the words of the Wall Street Journal, Wolfe has "long inhabited a terrain of [her] own, a place where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock."
With Stronghold, for 8 double basses, Bang on a Can All-Star Robert Black and the Hartt Bass Band become a mega bass with wild harmonic rolls, soaring tunes, and an earthquake of low strings. In the relentless and breathless Dig Deep the ferocious JACK Quartet whip all 16 strings up to a frenzy, and in LAD, for multiple bagpipes, piper Matthew Welch builds dense walls of reedy sound that turn to a cacophony of gigs and reels.
This is a first-come, fully seated event. Seating is limited and not guaranteed; please arrive early.
Stronghold, for 8 double basses (performed by Robert Black and the Hartt Bass Band)
LAD, for 9 bagpipes (performed solo with accompanying pre-recorded bagpipes by Matthew Welch)
Dig Deep, for string quartet (performed by the JACK Quartet)
Description:
The Music of Julia Wolfe
with Jack Quartet, Hartt Bass Band, and Matthew Welch (bagpipes)
Julia Wolfe, cofounder of Bang on a Can, comes to LPR with three passionate works for 8 double basses, string quartet, and bagpipes. Wolfe's music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. In the words of the Wall Street Journal, Wolfe has "long inhabited a terrain of [her] own, a place where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock."
With Stronghold, for 8 double basses, Bang on a Can All-Star Robert Black and the Hartt Bass Band become a mega bass with wild harmonic rolls, soaring tunes, and an earthquake of low strings. In the relentless and breathless Dig Deep the ferocious JACK Quartet whip all 16 strings up to a frenzy, and in LAD, for multiple bagpipes, piper Matthew Welch builds dense walls of reedy sound that turn to a cacophony of gigs and reels.
This is a first-come, fully seated event. Seating is limited and not guaranteed; please arrive early.
Artists
The Music of Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe has written a major body of work for strings, with pieces commissioned by the Lark, Ethel, Kronos, and Cassatt quartets. Three of her quartets - Dig Deep, Four Marys, and Early That Summer - can be heard on the disc Julia Wolfe: The String Quartets. As described by the New Yorker, these one-movement works "combine the violent forward drive of rock music with an aura of minimalist serenity [and] use the four instruments as a big guitar, whipping psychedelic states of mind into frenzied and ecstatic climaxes." My Beautiful Scream, a string quartet concerto, was written for Kronos Quartet and the Orchestre National de France and was premiered in the US at the Cabrillo Festival under the direction of Marin Alsop. The work was inspired by the idea of a slow motion scream and was written shortly after September 11, 2001.
The influence of pop culture can be heard in many of Wolfe's works, including Lick and Believing for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Lick, based on fragments of funk, has become a manifesto for the new generation of pop-influenced composers. The raucous My Lips From Speaking for six pianos was inspired by the opening riff of the Aretha Franklin tune Think. Wolfe's Dark Full Ride is an obsessive and relentless exploration of the drum set, beginning with an extended hi-hat spotlight. In LAD, Wolfe creates a kaleidoscopic landscape for nine bagpipes. Wolfe has also composed for Anna Deveare Smith's House Arrest and won an Obie award for her score to Ridge Theater's Jennie Richie. Wolfe recently created the city-wide spectacle Travel Music with architects DillerScofidio+Renfro in Bordeaux, France, filling the streets of the old city with 100 musicians walking and riding in pedi-cabs.
Julia Wolfe's music has been heard at BAM, the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Settembre Musica (Italy), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and has been recorded on Cantaloupe, Teldec, Point/Universal, Sony Classical, and Argo/Decca. Recent projects include Steel Hammer - an evening length art ballad for Trio Mediaeval and the Bang on a Can All-Stars that premiered at Zankel Hall this past season. Upcoming projects include the New York premieres of Wolfe's string orchestra works Cruel Sister and FUEL performed by Signal at the Miller Theater on February 3, 2011. New works coming up are for Monica Germino, Evelyn Glennie, the Asko Ensemble, Ethel, and a percussion concerto for Collin Currie. Her CD Dark Full Ride, with works for 9 bagpipes, 4 drumsets, 6 pianos, and 8 double basses, was released on the Cantaloupe label in November 2009. Wolfe joined the NYU Steinhardt School’s composition faculty in the fall of 2009. She is co-founder of New York's music collective Bang on a Can.
juliawolfemusic.com
juliawolfemusic.com
JACK Quartet
The JACK Quartet electrifies audiences worldwide with "explosive virtuosity" (Boston Globe) and "viscerally exciting performances" (New York Times). David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer) proclaimed their performance as being "among the most stimulating new-music concerts of my experience," and NPR listed their performance as one of "The Best New York Alt-Classical Concerts Of 2010." TheWashington Post commented, "The string quartet may be a 250-year-old contraption, but young, brilliant groups like the JACK Quartet are keeping it thrillingly vital." Alex Ross (New Yorker) hailed their performance of Iannis Xenakis' complete string quartets as being "exceptional" and "beautifully harsh," and Mark Swed (Los Angeles Times) called their sold-out performances of Georg Friedrich Haas' String Quartet No. 3 In iij. Noct. "mind-blowingly good." The quartet's recording of Xenakis' complete string quartets appeared on "Best Of" lists from the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Yorker, NPR, and as "one of 2009's most impressive recordings" from Time Out New York.
JACK has performed to critical acclaim at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany), Library of Congress, Miller Theatre, Morgan Library & Museum, and Kimmel Center with recent and upcoming performances at the Ultraschall Festival (Germany), Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), Monday Evening Concerts, Town Hall Seattle, Les Flâneries Musicales de Reims (France), Arcana Festival (Austria), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), and Strathmore Hall.
Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland, JACK is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Matthias Pintscher, Georg Friedrich Haas, James Dillon, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, Elliott Sharp, Beat Furrer, Caleb Burhans, and Aaron Cassidy. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Alan Hilario, Peter Ablinger, Gregory Spears, Elliott Sharp, Jason Eckardt, and Hannah Lash. The quartet also offers fresh interpretations of early music, including works by Don Carlo Gesualdo, Guillaume de Machaut, and Josquin des Prez.
JACK has led workshops with young composers at the University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany), New York University, Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, Eastman School of Music, University at Buffalo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom), University of Washington, University of Victoria (Canada), and Manhattan School of Music. In addition to working with composers and performers, JACK seeks to broaden and diversify the potential audience for new music through educational presentations designed for a variety of ages, backgrounds, and levels of musical experience.
The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music, and they have since studied with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. JackQuartet.com
JACK has performed to critical acclaim at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany), Library of Congress, Miller Theatre, Morgan Library & Museum, and Kimmel Center with recent and upcoming performances at the Ultraschall Festival (Germany), Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), Monday Evening Concerts, Town Hall Seattle, Les Flâneries Musicales de Reims (France), Arcana Festival (Austria), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), and Strathmore Hall.
Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland, JACK is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Matthias Pintscher, Georg Friedrich Haas, James Dillon, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, Elliott Sharp, Beat Furrer, Caleb Burhans, and Aaron Cassidy. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Alan Hilario, Peter Ablinger, Gregory Spears, Elliott Sharp, Jason Eckardt, and Hannah Lash. The quartet also offers fresh interpretations of early music, including works by Don Carlo Gesualdo, Guillaume de Machaut, and Josquin des Prez.
JACK has led workshops with young composers at the University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany), New York University, Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, Eastman School of Music, University at Buffalo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom), University of Washington, University of Victoria (Canada), and Manhattan School of Music. In addition to working with composers and performers, JACK seeks to broaden and diversify the potential audience for new music through educational presentations designed for a variety of ages, backgrounds, and levels of musical experience.
The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music, and they have since studied with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. JackQuartet.com
Robert Black and the Hartt Bass Band
Robert Black, member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, has commissioned, collaborated or performed with hundreds of composers from John Cage to D.J. Spooky, Elliot Carter to Meredith Monk, Cecil Tayor to Paquito d'Rivera. His recital activities frequently take him to five continents and he has appeared at major festivals (Takefu International Music Festival, Japan; Festival de Eleazar Carvalho, Fortalzea, Brazil; Colombo-Catalan Festival, Medellin, Colombia; the Helsinki Festival; NYYD, Estonia; etc.), on radio and television broadcasts (Asia Live, Singapore, VPRO, Holland; NPR, United States; CBC, Canada; etc.) and as an artist-in-residence (American Center, Paris; the Banff Centre, Canada; Studio P.A.S.S., NYC).
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 Hartt Bass Band presents a wide variety of music, ranging from the Renaissance to Metallica. The group has a particular focus on creative projects with living composers and choreographers. Notable past projects include performances of the rarely heard Composition No. 2 "Dies Irae" by the Russian composer, Galina Ustvolskaya, the commissioning of Julia Wolfe’s bass octet – Stronghold, a collaboration with Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks in a work for 8 dancing bassists, a production of Pauline Oliveros’ seminal work Double Basses at 20 Paces, and a performance of John Voigt’s Bingo, for bass quintet and audience participation.
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 Hartt Bass Band presents a wide variety of music, ranging from the Renaissance to Metallica. The group has a particular focus on creative projects with living composers and choreographers. Notable past projects include performances of the rarely heard Composition No. 2 "Dies Irae" by the Russian composer, Galina Ustvolskaya, the commissioning of Julia Wolfe’s bass octet – Stronghold, a collaboration with Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks in a work for 8 dancing bassists, a production of Pauline Oliveros’ seminal work Double Basses at 20 Paces, and a performance of John Voigt’s Bingo, for bass quintet and audience participation.
RobertBlack.org
Matthew Welch
Regarded as "a composer possessed of both rich imagination and the skill to bring his fancies to life" by Time Out New York, composer and bagpipe virtuoso Matthew Welch (b.1976) holds two degrees in Music Composition, a BFA from Simon Fraser University (1999), and an MA from Wesleyan University (2001), having studied with noted composers such as Barry Truax, Rodney Sharman, Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton. After locating to New York City in 2001, he has worked with a host of other artists such as John Zorn, Julia Wolfe, Zeena Parkins, and Ikue Mori. The eclectic breadth of his interests in Scottish bagpipe music, Balinese gamelan, minimalism, improvisation and rock converge in compositional amalgams ranging from traditional-like bagpipe tunes to electronic pieces, improvisation strategies and fully notated works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra and non-western instruments. Since 2002, Mr. Welch has been running and composing for his own eclectic ensemble, Blarvuster, whose repertoire the New York Times has claimed as "border-busting music; original and catchy." Mr. Welch has recorded for the Tzadik, Mode, Cantaloupe, Leo, Porter, Muud, Avian, Newsonic and Parallactic record labels.
Matthew-Welch.com
Matthew-Welch.com