Bang on a Can

Eugene started out being quite a different piece, certainly not a multimedia piece. In the back of my mind, I'd been thinking of doing a piece that set Kovacs' "Eugene" to music. But as my mother began her physical decline from alzheimer's disease, I could concentrate on little else and it seemed like a good idea to tackle the video. She was the Kovacs fan. In fact, it made me feel like I was including her in my work. One of my earliest childhood memories has my parents and I sitting in our living room, (watching the old zenith tv we kept too long) watching the last of Kovacs' dutch masters specials. Kovacs' work is, in itself, so inspiring. Quite the neat trick, producing bunuel-like work and getting millions to love it on its on terms. Like Stevie Wonder, Ellington, Raymond Scott: so arty, yet accessible. -Don Byron

Eugene was commissioned by Bang on a Can and is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency and with the generous support of Chamber Music America.