Björk releases “mixtape” with two Lang tracks!
November 20, 2017
Listen to a “mixtape” produced by Björk that includes two excerpts by David Lang! death speaks and sweet air! enjoy!
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10 Years of ‘the little match girl passion’
October 27, 2017
On October 27, 2007 Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices premiered David Lang’s the little match girl passion in Carnegie Hall. The composition won Lang a Pulitzer Prize, the recording won a Grammy Award, and the score has since become one of the most performed new works in the world.
Staged by Glimmerglass Opera and Portland Opera, choreographed by the Paris Opera Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet, with theatrical productions in Moscow, London, Edinburgh, and Sydney, it has been performed over 400 times across 35 countries…
Read MoreSeattle Symphony premieres new work
October 5, 2017
On February 8, in Benaryoa Hall, conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony premiere David Lang’s first symphony: symphony without a hero, commissioned for the Seattle Symphony by the Lynn and Brian Grant Family. The 27-minute work is in one movement, with two related parts — two separate musical movements that are performed simultaneously: one heavy and oppressive and one light and hopeful. Lang explains that one doesn’t “really hear the light and hopeful music until the oppressive movement ends.”
Read Moreman made; NY premiere: Mostly Mozart Festival
August 1, 2017
August 1-2, conductor Louis Langrée with Sō Percussion and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, give the New York premiere of David Lang’s man made. In this percussion quartet concerto, Lang combines found percussion (sticks, pipes, metal trash) with orchestral instruments in a unique and incredibly compelling work commissioned by the Barbican Centre and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Watch a video about the concerto with Lang and So Percussion…
Read MoreTheatre of Voices: Music from ‘The Great Beauty’
April 17, 2017
On April 25-27, at the Garnisonskirken in Copenhagen, the Theatre of Voices with condutor Paul Hillier present music from the film The Great Beauty by director Paolo Sorrentino, featuring music by David Lang.
Lang’s i lie, wed, head hear, and Simple Song #3 (from Sorrentino’s YOUTH) will be performed alondside works by Arvo Pärt and Jóhann Jóhannson…
Read More‘just (after song of songs)’ on The xx ‘Lips’
January 23, 2017
Now featured on the international bestselling album I See You by British band The xx.
Listen to Lang’s original work here
See the UK premiere at the Royal College of Music
Perform just (after song of songs) with your ensemble!
Read More‘anatomy theater’ New York premiere
January 4, 2017
From January 7-14, the Prototype Festival presents the New York premiere of David Lang’s anatomy theater, co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects, with set design by Mark Dion, direction by Bob McGrath, conductor Christopher Rountree and the International Contemporary Ensemble, plus Bill Morrison (video), Laurie Olinder (projection), Christopher Kuhl (lighting), and Alixandra Gage Englund (costumes).
Based on actual 18th-century texts, anatomy theater follows the astonishing progression of an English murderess: from confession to execution and, ultimately, public dissection before a paying audience of fascinated onlookers…
Read MoreSetting a Rant to Music: On Adapting Thomas Bernhard’s ‘The Loser’ for the Opera
September 29, 2016
By David Lang
http://www.themillions.com
September 22, 2016
In 1998, I wrote music for a production of Friedrich Schiller’s play Mary Stuart at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. The director was my friend Carey Perloff, the music was sung by the spectacular men’s vocal ensemble Chanticleer, and the translation of the text was by the writer and Village Voice theater critic Michael Feingold. There can be a lot of down time for a composer and a translator during theater rehearsals so Michael and I passed the time telling each other stories about books we should be reading, and Michael suggested I read Thomas Bernhard’s The Loser…
Read MoreNYRB Review: ‘the loser’
September 14, 2016
Francine Prose9/13/2016 The Loser, David Lang’s beautiful and startlingly original opera, had its world premiere this month at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Composed for a solo baritone, a chamber ensemble, and a concert pianist, the opera (Lang not only wrote the music but is also responsible for the libretto and the stage direction) has been adapted from the Thomas Bernhard novel of the same name—a book which, since its publication in 1983, has attracted an almost cultish following…
Read More‘the loser’ New York Times review
September 10, 2016
“…the score is a model of how music can animate words. The text is set with impressive clarity, and Mr. Gilfry sings every phrase with crisp diction and dramatic point, delivering phrases with virile energy, sudden bluster, or, during vulnerable moments, an aching confusion that takes you by surprise.”
— Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times