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‘the writings’ EU premiere

On 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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‘the little match girl passion’ version for chorus receives German premiere

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Click to watch Paul Hillier conduct the little match girl passion (chamber version)

On Saturday September 15, Paul Hillier and Rundfunkchor Berlin give the German premiere of David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning composition, the little match girl passion in its arrangement for full chorus.

the little match girl passion, the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in music is a 35-minute work for a quartet of singers each playing percussion instruments, co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and The Perth Theater and Concert Hall…

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death speaks on NPR’s “First Listen”

Although we all eventually face death, it’s a topic most avoid — except perhaps for philosophers, who explain it to our heads, and artists, who present it to our hearts.

Composer David Lang offers something for both head and heart — and goes one step further in his new song cycle, Death Speaks. Here, death is less a lofty concept than a personality.

“It isn’t a state of being or a place or a metaphor, but a person, a character in a drama who can tell us in our own language what to expect in the World to Come,” Lang wrote for the Carnegie Hall debut of the piece last year…

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Biography

“With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match girl passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master.”

— The New Yorker

Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms…

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David Lang receives Duke Foundation grant

David Lang is among 20 of America’s most vital artists working in the fields of contemporary dance, jazz and theatre announced by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) as recipients of the 2013 Doris Duke Artist Awards.

The grantees include: • Anthony Braxton (Middletown, CT (New York, NY)• Billy Childs (Los Angeles, CA)• Ping Chong (New York, NY)• Kelly Copper (New York, NY)• Lisa D’Amour (New Orleans, LA and New York, NY)• DD Dorvillier (New York, NY and Paris, France)• Amir ElSaffar (New York, NY)• David Gordon (New York, NY)• Pat Graney (Seattle, WA)• Stacy Klein (Ashfield, MA)• David Lang (New York, NY)• Pavol Liska (New York, NY)• Rudresh Mahanthappa (Montclair, NJ)• John Malpede (Los Angeles, CA)• Miya Masaoka (Berkeley, CA and New York, NY)• Myra Melford (Berkeley, CA)• Tere O’Connor (Champaign, IL and New York, NY)• William Parker (New York, NY)• Elizabeth Streb (Brooklyn, NY)• Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Tallahassee, FL and Brooklyn, NY)

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‘man made’ world premiere

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As part of Nico Muhly’s A Scream and an Outrage festival, The Barbican Centre features two premieres by David Lang.

On May 10, So Percussion and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Jayce Ogren, give the world premiere of Lang’s concerto for percussion quartet and orchestra, man made. 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…

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love fail premieres at Yale

Lang’s newest work, love fail, premieres June 29 at the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Performed by the legendary vocal ensemble Anonymous 4, love fail is an evening-length work that weaves together snippets of medieval courtly love narratives, short stories by MacArthur Fellow Lydia Davis, scraps from the libretto of Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, and text by Lang himself.

Out of these sources, Lang has conjured a single story, in which two unnamed lovers meet each other, love each other, and lose each other—not necessarily in that order…

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recordings
recordings