Bang on a Can

For Immediate Release February 5, 2007

For more information and media requests, contact Allegra McBane at Bang on a Can (718) 852-7755 or allegra@bangonacan.org.

BANG ON A CAN Turns 20 Years Old!

“[Bang on a Can] has grown from an upstart, one-day marathon celebration of contemporary classical music into a veritable cottage industry.” –BillboardMagazine

The New York music collective, Bang on a Can, kicks off its 20th birthday year with characteristically adventurous and innovative projects including the upcoming People’s Commissioning Fund Concert at Merkin Hall on March 1st, this year’s 26-hour Bang on a Can Marathon concert at the World Financial Center in New York June 2-3, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, and extensive national and international tours for the resident ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars.

Composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe started Bang on a Can in 1987 in New York City as a way to present concerts of the broad range of music they loved; the enterprise has since grown into one of the most vital, enduring, and beloved forces in America’s new music scene. Dedicated to presenting the work of composers across a wide spectrum, Bang on a Can has carved a home for musical inventors, misfits, and pioneers. The organization is now comprised of its resident ensemble the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who tour to major festivals and concert venues around the world; The People’s Commissioning Fund, a commissioning program that creates unprecedented opportunities for emerging composers; the annual mammoth Bang on a Can Marathon concert in New York, which will present a 24+ hour Marathon concert, the longest in Bang on a Can history; touring productions such as the staged oratorio Lost Objects and the OBIE award-winning opera The Carbon Copy Building (based on the work of comic book artist Ben Katchor); Cantaloupe Music, the record label formed by Bang on a Can in 2001; and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA.

Bang on a Can continues to forge an unparalleled path in creating a vision of artistic and musical innovation combined with enough business savvy to keep it at the forefront of the New York music scene and continue to grow its influence across the globe. Bang on a Can evolved from a one-day marathon concert with a $5,000 budget to an annual budget of $300,000 in 1997 with dozens of commissions and performances. Now, twenty years from the first concert, Bang on a Can has a yearly budget of around $1 million and an annual worldwide audience of 200,000. Bang on a Can has established itself as an internationally recognized institution, and through its broad reach across the musical spectrum, will no doubt continue to influence the contemporary music world for at least another twenty years to come.

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