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The Season of ‘the little match girl passion’

Since winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2008, David Lang’s the little match girl passionhas quickly joined the repertoire as a chamber work, a staged production, a work for full chorus, and a featured event on Christmas and Easter concerts around the world.

This season over 50 performances of the little match girl passion are being given by ensembles throughout North America, Europe and Australia, including the return of Donald Nally’s The Crossing to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art

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works

prayers for night and sleep (2018) 15'

text by David Lang

solo soprano, solo cello, 1 perc, strings

Cello Biennale Amsterdam, Amsterdam Sinfonietta

Program Note Libretto Recordings rent music score preview More Info

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Song of Song premiere with dance

From July 1-3 at Bard SummerScape David Lang and choreographer Pam Tanowitz premiere a new evening-length work, entitled Song of Songs. A hymn of yearning, steeped in images from the natural world, the dance was commissioned by The Fisher Center at Bard College, and the music was co-commissioned by The Fisher Center with LA Opera, The Company of Music (Austria), The Crossing (Philadelphia), and Flagey (Brussels). The program pairs Lang’s 2014 work just (after song of songs) with three vocal works composed and premiered over the past two years: let me come in, the sense of senses, and we were

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writing

First Person: Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang on the original Jewish love story

October 12, 2023

I wouldn’t say that I am super religious, but I am definitely religion-curious. It is a big part of my family background, and, to be honest, a big part of the history of my chosen field, Western classical music. For the past 1000 years, the church has been the most powerful commissioner of Western music, and its most active employer of musicians.

Because of this, much of our foundational repertoire is explicitly on the subject of how music helps a listener get in the mood for a religious experience…

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Kravis Prize for New Music: New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic has awarded David Lang the Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music — one of the world’s largest new-music prizes. In addition to a monetary award, the Kravis Prize includes a commission for a new work that the NY Philharmonic will premiere in the 2025–26 season.

Lang’s receipt of the Kravis Prize builds on a decades-long history of premieres and performances by the NY Philharmonic — most recently, in 2019 the NY Phil co-commissioned and premiered Lang’s fully-staged opera, prisoner of the state, with then-Music Director Jaap van Zweden…

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