news

David Lang Profile in New York Times

DAVID LANG first heard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the San Francisco Opera in 1974, as an undergraduate student and aspiring composer. This was the first opera ticket — standing room — that he had paid for with his own money, and he arrived well prepared, with a copy of the score and a flashlight to study it by.

“It was a really big deal for me,” Mr. Lang, now 55, said recently, sitting on a sofa in his light-flooded SoHo loft while two parakeets called noisily for attention from another room…

continue reading
news

Summer Opera: Glimmerglass, Mostly Mozart

From July 20 through August 22, 2013 Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY stages 2 works by David Lang, directed by Francesca Zambello. His Pulitzer Prize-winning choral work, the little match girl passion and a new work, when we were children, commissioned specifically for this performance by Glimmerglass Opera.

August 10 – 13 Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and the International Contemporary Ensemble (Tony Arnold, soprano) present the New York premiere of David Lang’s the whisper opera for soprano and four instrumentalists, directed by Jim Findlay…

continue reading
news

Collected Stories at Carnegie Hall 4/22-29

As part of the 2013/2014 Debs Chair composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall, David Lang has curated an amazing series of concerts to focus on the art of storytelling in music. From April 22-29, Carnegie Hall presents: Collected Stories

Lang comments on the mini-festival:

Music and storytelling began their lives together—music to accompany heroic tales, music to worship by, music to suggest the emotions running deep below the surface of a text…

continue reading
news
news

‘the public domain’ at Mostly Mozart Festival

On August 13, The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center gives the world premiere of David Lang’s the public domain — a performance that not only welcomes the public as a free and open event, but will also be performed by the public. A piece inspired by the theme of the collective knowledge shared amongst us all, the new work is performed by 1,000 volunteer vocalists from throughout New York City, conducted by Simon Halsey, Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra…

continue reading
news
news
news

David Lang, ‘again (after ecclesiastes)’ featured on NPR

David Lang, ‘again (after ecclesiastes)’

June 14, 2022 10:35 AM ET
Tom Huizenga

David Lang‘s again (after ecclesiastes) opens with sections of the Cappella Amsterdam choir, from high to low, interlacing on the phrase “People come and people go / The earth goes on and on.” The words are from Ecclesiastes, a curious book of The Old Testament that reads more like a philosophical argument than a rousing validation of belief…

continue reading
news
news

Tallis Scholars perform ‘sun-centered’ at Carnegie Hall

“Tallis Scholars: the rock stars of Renaissance vocal music!”
The New York Times

On Monday April 8 — appropriately, the 2024 Solar EclipseThe Tallis Scholars give the New York premiere of David Lang’s sun-centered at Carnegie Hall/Zankel Hall. Commissioned for the Tallis Scholars by Cal Performances, Carnegie Hall Corporation, Hopkins Center, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Stanford Live, Virginia Tech and Concertgebouw Bruges (Belgium), the work is a meditation on humanity’s predilection for disbelief…

continue reading