LA Opera releases the latest in their online series “On Now”: David Lang’s let me come in features soprano Angel Blue, with conductor Bryan Wagorn, violist David Creswell, cellist Anja Wood, and percussionist Miles Salerni.
Co-commissioned by LA Opera and the Fisher Center at Bard College, this online premiere of let me come in is accompanied by a new film by filmmaker Bill Morrison …
continue readingA Haunting Tale, Perfect for Christmas
The Crossing in ‘The Little Match Girl Passion,’ at the Met
Tina Fineberg for The New York Times
Members of the Crossing, a choir of 24, at the Metropolitan Museum.
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI Published: December 24, 2012
At holiday time, the Metropolitan Museum of Art draws countless visitors to its Medieval Sculpture Garden to see the splendidChristmas tree and 18th-century Neapolitan crèche…
continue readingI became a composer because, when I was nine years old, I saw a movie of Leonard Bernstein conducting Shostakovich’s First Symphony with the New York Philharmonic. I fell in love immediately with the music of Shostakovich, with the idea of being a composer, with the orchestra itself. I was so in love with Shostakovich, in fact, that I immersed myself in his music, and then all Russian music, then I studied the Russian language in school, I read all the Russian literature I could find, and I spent the summer of 1975 studying in the Soviet Union…
continue readingI had two jobs my senior year in high school—a music-related job and a film-related job. All these years later, both are on my mind, since I have been spending time in Los Angeles helping to promote Paolo Sorrentino’s new film Youth, for which I wrote the music.
I live in New York, but I grew up in Los Angeles, in Westwood, which is the neighborhood that surrounds UCLA. These days Westwood is a kind of anonymous shopping district, but in 1973, when I worked there, it still felt like a college town…
continue readingMarch 6 and 7, David Lang curates the 2015 New Music Dublin festival What?…Wow: David Lang’s Festival of Music.
Lang’s festival spans six concerts over two days including the Irish premiere of his man made, performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra with New York-based quartet So Percussion; the Irish premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Appalachia-inspired Steel Hammer, performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars with Norwegian vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval; and the world premiere of Michael Gordon‘s new work for the Dublin Guitar Quartet…
continue readingBy Tom Huizenga
Listen to excerpts of the interview here
Read more…David Lang, a New York-based composer, has won the Pulitzer Prize for music with his piece, The Little Match Girl Passion, based on the children’s story by Hans Christian Andersen.
Lang’s music makes a big impact with small forces. The piece is scored for only four voices and a few percussion instruments, played by the singers…
continue reading“Art songs have been moving out of classical music in the last many years,” writes composer David Lang. “Indie rock seems to be the place where Schubert’s sensibilities now lie, a better match for direct story telling and intimate emotionality.”
Lang’s death speaks, along with his work depart, is released on Cantaloupe music on April 30.
Click to purchase the recording
In death speaks — co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Stanford Lively Arts, and written for Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Owen Pallett and Shara Worden — Lang explores art song with the help of a group of classically trained artists who made their careers in the indie rock world…
continue readingOn Monday April 8 — appropriately, the 2024 Solar Eclipse — The 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 readingOn October 13 the Nederlands Kamerkoor premieres the writings at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. They perform the work in 5 additional Dutch cities through October 24 — click here for more details.
the writings — co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices — combines some old and some new works into an hour-long piece:
·· again (after ecclesiastes)
·· if I am silent
·· for love is strong
·· where you go
·· solitary
You can click here to see the full score…
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