David
Lang
David Lang—the prolific, enthusiastic and complicated
composer—embodies the restless spirit of invention. Musically
adventurous yet deeply versed in the classical tradition, Lang
is constantly in search of new musical forms and determined
to make a music that resists categorization. What unites his
compositions is the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision
that inform their structures.
Lang's extensive catalogue includes opera, orchestra, chamber
and solo works, which are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent,
hypnotic, unsettling and funky. Moments of heart-wrenching lyricism
may be pushed up against metal-crunching chords. Intense rhythmic
patterns may fracture and unravel into luminous pockets of harmonic
sound. Much of his work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity
in music—even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly
difficult to play and require incredible concentration by the
musicians. The effect is spellbinding.
"There is no name
yet for this kind of music," writes music critic Mark Swed,
but audiences around the globe are hearing more and more of
Lang's work in performances by such organizations as the New
York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland
Orchestra and the Kronos Quartet; at the Tanglewood, the BBC
Proms, the Munich Biennale, the Settembre Musica Festival, the
Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival and the Almieda, Holland,
Berlin, Strausberg, Huddersfield and Dresden music festivals;
in theater productions in New York, San Francisco and London;
in the choreography of Twyla Tharp, La La La Human Steps, the
Netherlands Dans Theater and the Royal Ballet; and at Lincoln
Center, the South Bank Centre, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center,
the Barbican Centre and BAM.
Recent projects include
monumental musical environments like the floating and meditative
amplified orchestral piece The Passing Measures; The
Difficulty of Crossing a Field, an opera for the Kronos
Quartet with a libretto by Mac Wellman and directed by Carey
Perloff; the critically-acclaimed opera Modern Painters
about the curious and tragic life of art critic John Ruskin;
the evening-length piano solo Psalms Without Words;
and the bittersweet comic book opera The Carbon Copy Building,
with cartoonist Ben Katchor, Bob McGrath and the Ridge Theater
and composers Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe.
Lang has been honored with the Rome Prize,
the BMW Music-Theater Prize (Munich), a Kennedy Center/Friedheim
Award, the Revson Fellowship with the New York Philharmonic,
and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment
for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1999 he received a Bessie Award
for his music for choreographer Susan Marshall's The Most
Dangerous Room in the House, performed live by the Bang
On A Can All-Stars at the Next Wave Festival of BAM. The
Carbon Copy Building won the 2000 Village Voice OBIE Award
for Best New American Work.
Lang is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of New York's legendary music festival,
Bang On A Can, and Composer-In-Residence at the American Conservatory
Theater in San Francisco. Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Lang holds
degrees from Stanford University and the University of Iowa, receiving
his doctorate from the Yale School of Music in 1989. He has studied
with Jacob Druckman, Hans Werner Henze and Martin Bresnick. His
work is recorded on the Sony Classical, BMG, Point, Chandos, Argo/Decca
and CRI labels.
The New Yorkers —
2003 Next Wave Festival
Bang on a Can Marathon — 2001 Next Wave Festival
Bang on a Can Marathon — 2000 Next Wave Festival