Bang on a Can All-Stars to perform at the Tang

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore will present a concert by Bang on a Can All-Stars, featuring a world premiere composition, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18.

A highlight of the concert is a new composition by Brendon Randall-Myers titled Changes, Stops, and Swells, commissioned by Jack Shear and the Tang Teaching Museum.

The program also includes music by Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon (Gene Takes a Drink), Julia Wolfe (Believing), and David Lang (Heroin), as well as Steve Martland’s Horses of Instruction, and Closing by Philip Glass.

Admission to the concert is free; reservations are required. Please call the museum’s Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 to reserve a spot.

Jack Shear, photographer, curator, and collector, recently donated more than 500 photographs to the museum, and the exhibition Borrowed Light: Selections from the Jack Shear Collection (open February 6 through August 14) features a selection of works chosen by Shear and Ian Berry, the Tang’s Dayton Director, that spans the history of the medium.

Gordon’s Gene Takes a Drink is a feature of the group’s celebrated Field Recordings project, released on Cantaloupe Music in 2015; recent Pulitzer-prize winner Julia Wolfe’s Believing has been a feature of the group’s repertoire since its premiere at Lincoln Center in 1997. David Lang’s arrangement of Lou Reed's Heroin, originally recorded by the Velvet Underground, features Bang on a Can All-Stars’ cellist and Saratoga Springs native Ashley Bathgate. Bang on a Can commissioned Horses of Instruction from Steve Martland in 1994. Described by WNYC as “a muscular jazz-funk summit between Reich and Stravinsky,” this piece is a fan favorite now spanning more than two decades. Philip Glass’ Closing (1981) is the last movement from his piece, Glassworks, one of Glass’ most recognizable recordings.

About Brendon Randall-Myers

Brendon Randall-Myers is a Brooklyn-based composer and guitarist, and the co-founder of composer/performer ensemble Invisible Anatomy and min/maximalist punk band Marateck. Praised as "fiercely aggressive but endlessly compelling" (The San Francisco Chronicle) and “a compositional tour de force” (San Francisco Classical Voice), his music amplifies the raw physical and emotional power of bodies creating sound. As a composer, he has received commissions from the Tang Museum at Skidmore, the Guitar Foundation of America, and Roulette, and collaborated with performers such as the Bang on a Can All-Stars, The Omaha Symphony, Friction Quartet, and guitarist Jack Sanders. As a guitarist, he has appeared with Ensemble Signal, Opera Saratoga, and Dither Quartet; on the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Ellnora Guitar Festival, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Brendon grew up home-schooled in rural West Virginia, and holds degrees from Pomona College and the Yale School of Music.

About the Bang on a Can All-Stars

The Bang on a Can All-Stars are Ashley Bathgate, cello; Robert Black, bass; Vicky Chow, piano; David Cossin, percussion; Mark Stewart, guitars; and Ken Thomson, clarinets. Formed in 1992, the All-Stars are recognized for their live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories.

The All-Stars’ celebrated projects include landmark recordings of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley’s In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Don Byron, Iva Bittova, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett and others. The All-Stars were awarded Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2005 and have been heralded as “the country’s most important vehicle for contemporary music” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.

About Bang on a Can

Bang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Since its first Marathon concert in 1987, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music. Over 28 years, Bang on a Can has grown from a one-day New York-based Marathon concert (on Mother’s Day in 1987 in a SoHo art gallery) to a multi-faceted performing arts organization with a broad range of year-round international activities, including the annual Bang on a Can Marathon; the People’s Commissioning Fund; the Bang on a Can All-Stars; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival; Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can’s extreme street band; and many others.