I 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, […]
Read MoreNYT Review: A B-Movie Starlet Becomes an Opera Diva in ‘Acquanetta’ By Seth Colter WallsJanuary 10, 2018 A large screen looms over the stage. Projected onto it is a black-and-white close-up on an eyeball, fluttering in a state of nervous distress. An overture, powered by distorted electric guitar and staccato strings, accompanies this sooty B-movie-style […]
Read MoreListen to a “mixtape” produced by Björk that includes two excerpts by David Lang! death speaks and sweet air! enjoy!
Read MoreFrom November 5-11, two European festivals feature music by Julia Wolfe: • 11/5: Sounds of Music Festival (Groningen, NL) — the JACK Quartet performs Early that summer• 11/7: Strings of Autumn Fesitval (Prague, CZ) — Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Anthracite Fields with Martinů Voices• 11/8: Sounds of Music Festival — Trash Panda Collective […]
Read MoreOn October 27, 2007 Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices premiered David Lang’s the little match girl passion in Carnegie Hall. The composition won Lang a Pulitzer Prize, the recording won a Grammy Award, and the score has since become one of the most performed new works in the world. Staged by Glimmerglass Opera and […]
Read MoreFrom May 10-13, Peak Performances in Montclair, NJ presents cellist Maya Beiser and friends in a new evening-length work by Julia Wolfe called “Spinning”, which celebrates the work once performed by hand by women. Music has long been a vital part of the craft — both as a propelling force and as a distraction. To […]
Read MoreFrom January 9 – 14, the Prototype Festival presents a new, commissioned, chamber version of Michael Gordon’s opera Acquanetta at the Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Based on a 1940’s B-movie horror flick called Captive Wild Woman, starring an enigmatic actress and former cheesecake model named Acquanetta, the opera’s libretto is written by […]
Read MoreOn February 8, in Benaryoa Hall, conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony premiere David Lang’s first symphony: symphony without a hero, commissioned for the Seattle Symphony by the Lynn and Brian Grant Family. The 27-minute work is in one movement, with two related parts — two separate musical movements that are performed simultaneously: one […]
Read MoreAugust 1-2, conductor Louis Langrée with Sō Percussion and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, give the New York premiere of David Lang’s man made. In this percussion quartet concerto, 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 […]
Read MoreOn Saturday July 1 The Crossing Choir premieres Michael Gordon’s concert-length work, Anonymous Man. The text is drawn from Gordon’s experiences living in a changing neighborhood on a street called Desbrosses in Lower Manhattan, meeting Julia Wolfe (to whom he is married), raising a family, and especially encounters with two homeless men who lived across […]
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