I didn’t like it.
School was over and I was sick of it, and I thought it was about time to go to work. I had gone straight from high school to college to graduate school, and I was pretty burned out. I had loved everything I had been doing in school, but as I got further along I became confused.
The paradox of a musical education is that the more sophisticated you become about how it all works, the further away you move from the things normal listeners actually hear…
continue readingFor six consecutive nights — October 3-8, 2018 — 1,000 singers from across New York City come together on the High Line (NYC’s mile-long elevated linear park) for the world premiere of the mile-long opera — conceived by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and David Lang, with music by Lang, text by Anne Carson and Claudia Rankine, and staging by directors Elizabeth Diller and Lynsey Peisinger…
continue reading![[REVIEW] click to read NY Times review of 'prisoner of the state'](https://davidlang.sqcdy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/10/prisoner-review_times-cutout4.jpg)
David Lang’s prisoner of the state — co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, De Doelen, Barbican Centre, l’Auditori, Bochumer Symphoniker, Concertgebouw Bruges and Malmö Opera — premiered in June 2019 with the New York Philharmonic, and received its British premiere in January 2020 at the Barbican Centre in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and conductor Ilan Volkov…
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Hi Everyone!
I am really excited that my piece ‘man made’ for So Percussion and orchestra is now up on the BBC site, ready to be heard. ‘man made’ was co-commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and it premiered this past May at the Barbican, played by So and the BBC Symphony, conducted by Jayce Ogren.
You have to listen fast – the recording is only posted this week!…
continue readingI have worked with So Percussion for a very long time now and I know them really well. When I got the opportunity to write a concerto for them I wanted to make it specifically for them, for the things that they have been concentrating on for the past few years. The are frequently theatrical, they invite found objects into their performances, they build their own instruments, etc. I wondered if I could make the unusualness of their musicality the centerpiece of this concerto, but how could an orchestra of ‘normal’ instruments doing mostly ‘normal’ things find common ground with them?…
continue readinghttp://www.carnegiehall.org/lang/
http://www.carnegiehall.org/Subscriptions/2013-2014-Season/David-Lang/
David Lang — Carnegie Hall’s 2013–2014 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair — embodies the restless spirit of invention with his creation of new forms that defy categorization. The musically omnivorous creator references folk, pop, and jazz influences in his compositions, while at the same time being deeply rooted in the classical tradition.
His cultural openness also informs the performers with whom he collaborates…
continue readingImagine that you’re a composer. Imagine getting this commission: ”Please write us a song that will allow family members to face the death of a loved one…” Well, composer David Lang had to do just that when a hospital in Garches, France, asked him to write music for their morgue, or ”Salle Des Departs.”
What do you do? What should death sound like?
Producer Jocelyn Gonzales brings us this piece about David Lang and his commission for the ”Salle Des Departs.”
By Molly Sheridan
Read more…”I wanted to tell a story,” writes David Lang, introducing the new recording (just out on Harmonia Mundi) of his 2008 Pulitzer-Prize winner the little match girl passion. Such a simple and powerful desire; such a simple and powerful story to tell. (…)