Cage Centenary Program_FINAL

8/11/2019 Cage Centenary Program_FINAL

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THE COMPOSERS

2:JOHN

CAGECENTENARY CELEBRATION

"I have nothing to say and I am saying it " – JOHN CAGE

2 & 3 November 2012



YARMILA ALFONZETTIProducer Classical Music, Sydney Opera House I often question my insatiable passion for new music. My insecurities tell me that I gravitate towards it because it puts everyone on a (slightly more) level playing field in terms of knowledge and experience, unlike the canon of western art music where it is obvious that the more you know the less you know. On the other hand, so many of us are just drawn to something that is simply fresh, interesting, and clever.

Over and above the luxury of satisfying my personal need, my job here is to put on great concerts in great venues. Fortunately, when the opportunity arose to celebrate the work of John Cage, my dream ensemble of fresh, interesting and clever musicians were ready to answer the call. I am very excited that the wonderful people who form the Bang on a Can All‐Stars were able to make the potentially hazardous trip from the States to be with us this week. And, if we don’t all already know it, we will all soon be sure about the debt of gratitude we owe the fresh, interesting and very clever Mr John Cage.

DAVID LANGCo-Artistic Director, Bang on a CanComposers often say that the great gift John Cage gave to us all was 'permission.' But permission to do what? This kind of talk often looks to outsiders as 'permission to do something ridiculous' or 'permission to goof off.' Not to take anything away from goofing off, but that really isn't the kind of permission we need. We always had the power to be ridiculous and composers have been exercising it spectacularly for millennia. The kind of permission Cage gave us was to remind us of our freedom to follow an idea as far as it will possibly go, that our job as a composer can be to ask a hard question about the nature of music and then follow it up. Composers look at much of Cage's output as an exploration of what the job of a composer actually is, or should, or could be. Bang on a Can's presentation of Cage's work on this festival develops a few different strands of this kind of exploration.

A central part of Cage's work has dealt with the relationship within a piece between form and sound. A composer's work is split into two basic tasks ‐ we have to find notes or sounds or melodies, and then we have to arrange them in time and in order. Sound, then form. Cage spent his life distorting the balances between these categories. Can the form come first? Is a sound a melody? If you arrange any activity in time is it music? Can a piece be all sound or all form? In other words, composers take a lot of decisions for granted in order to make a piece of music. Cage's pieces, even those that are seemingly the 'free ‐est,' don't take anything for granted. Cage focuses on one or two aspects of what a composer does, and then pushes that focus as far as it will go.

Cage's pieces always begin with a great question. Can a piano not sound like a piano? Can a musical score be a piece of graph paper? Is it composition to encourage sounds to collide with each other by chance, along with spoken stories about things happening by chance, arranged by chance? The paradox in all of these is that they are fully committed experiments aimed squarely at our traditional definitions of what music is. As a composer, those kinds of questions give me permission to ask a whole lot more.

Bang on a Can had a close relationship to John Cage. Cage's music was featured on every Bang on a Can Festival, from its founding until his death, and we produced a number of performances of his works with him. He was a frequent audience member, a collaborator, a mentor, a friend. To celebrate the Cage's 100th birthday, we've assembled 3 performances which honour all of these relationships. Cage's music is represented by a range of works from different periods, from the prepared piano of Sonatas and Interludes to the avant ‐carnival atmosphere of the Musicircus. We have music by composers who pushed Cage's 'permission' into new explorations of compositional freedoms ‐ Brian Eno, Louis Andriessen and Terry

Riley. And finally we have our own music, which remembers both the lessons we learned from him as much as the spirit of the man himself.



JOHN CAGE (1912 ‐1992) Biography

American avant ‐garde composer John Cage questioned all musical preconceptions inherited from the 19th century, and he flourished in an atmosphere of controversy. The teacher ‐composer Arnold Schoenberg once called him "not a composer, but an inventor—of genius." He received awards and grants; a few important music critics wrote perceptively and enthusiastically about his

works. However, to most of the public and even to many musicians his compositions—especially the late ones—remain baffling and outrageous, an anarchic world of noise that cannot even qualify as music. To Cage, "everything we do is music."

Cage was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 5, 1912, the son of John Milton Cage, an inventor and electrical engineer. John studied piano as a boy. After two years at Pomona College, he spent a year and a half in Europe, trying his hand at poetry, painting, and architecture, as well as music.

Cage dedicated himself to music shortly after returning to the United States in 1931. His first composition teacher was pianist Richard Bühlig, a noted interpreter of Schoenberg. In a musical world then divided between the serialism of Schoenberg and the neoclassicism of Igor Stravinsky, Cage found himself in the Schoenberg camp. In 1933 Cage went to New York City to study with a former pupil of Schoenberg, and also took Henry Cowell's classes. In 1934 he returned to Los Angeles and was accepted as a pupil by Schoenberg himself.

During the years with Schoenberg, Cage developed three new interests: percussive music, silence, and dance. He started experimenting with percussion ensembles, discovering or adapting instruments as he went along. Finding Schoenberg's use of tonality as a structural principle

inappropriate for percussion music, Cage sought a workable method. He decided that silence was the opposite coexistent of sound and determined that of the four characteristics of sound—pitch, timbre, loudness, and duration—only duration was also characteristic of silence; so he abandoned harmonic structure and began to use a rhythmic structure based on the duration of segments of time. Much of this early music is quiet, delicate, full of silences. Construction in Metal (1937) is a good example.

Cage's interest in modern dance was immediately reciprocated; dancers were eager to collaborate. Cage spent two years in Seattle as composer and accompanist for the dance classes of Bonnie Bird.

During this

time

he

found

that

inserting

screws

between

the

strings

of

a piano

would

create

a kind

of one ‐man percussion ensemble. This "prepared piano" became one of his most admired contributions to music, and he wrote a good deal of music for it.

After spending a year in San Francisco and a year teaching at the Chicago School of Design, Cage moved to New York City in 1942. A concert at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943 established him as a rising avant ‐garde composer. In 1945 Cage developed an interest in Eastern philosophy that soon had a profound effect on his work; he studied Indian music and attended Daisetz T. Suzuki's lectures on Zen Buddhism. About this time Cage became musical director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company; this was the beginning of a long ‐term association.

In 1949 Cage won an award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters for the invention of the prepared piano and a Guggenheim grant. His Sonatas and Interludes, performed at Carnegie Recital Hall, was very well received. Cage and Cunningham gave recitals in Europe, which brought



Cage into contact with the new generation of French musicians, including Pierre Boulez and Pierre Schaeffer. This year marked a culmination and a turning point.

Until 1950 Cage had been writing what he considered to be expressive music. Now his interest in Zen led him to question this. "When we separate music from life," he wrote in Silence, "what we get is art (a compendium of masterpieces). With contemporary music, when it is actually contemporary, we have no time to make that separation (which protects us from living), and so contemporary music is not so much art as it is life and anyone making it no sooner finishes one of it than he begins making another just as people keep on washing dishes, brushing their teeth, getting sleepy, and so on." To make his work consonant with the workings of nature and to free it from the tyranny of the ego, he experimented with "chance" procedures. Chance played a limited role in Sixteen Dances (for Merce Cunningham), but to create Music of Changes (premiered in 1952) Cage adapted methods from the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes, which involved tossing coins onto a series of charts to determine pitch, duration, and so forth. These experiments found little favour with the musical establishment, although Cage became closely involved with a circle of musicians with similar interests.

Cage swept forward into radical departures from all traditions, including his own. His Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1952) involved 24 men turning the dials of 12 radios. At Black Mountain College in the summer of 1952 he created a proto ‐"happening" that involved simultaneous dance, poetry, live music, records, films, slides, and an art exhibit. He produced his ultimate exploration of silence, 4'33"( 1952), in which the pianist sits immobile before the instrument, marking the beginning and end of each of the three sections in any way he chooses.

By 1958 Cage wished his music to be even more indeterminate in performance, that is, to give the performer a hand in the creation. Thus he did away with the usual score, instead devising a kit of materials: plastic sheets marked with predetermined codes, which the player was to superimpose in order to arrive at his "part." His improvisations did not endear him to the musical establishment. In 1958, when a group of artists presented a Cage retrospective at Town Hall in New York City, the audience that had enthusiastically applauded the earlier works expressed loud dissatisfaction during the performance of Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958). And in 1964, when Leonard Bernstein presented Cage's Atlas Enclipticalis with the New York Philharmonic, not only members of the audience but also some of the musicians hissed the composer. This saddened Cage but did not deter him.

In 1954 Cage moved to a small art colony in Stony Point, New York. Here he developed an interest in mushrooms. He taught about them at the New School for Social Research and founded the New York Mycological Society in 1962. He also delivered a series of lectures. These talks, full of charm and wit, were, like his music, compositions of words and silence; they were not "about" anything so much as aggregates of thought on whatever interested him: music, mushrooms, Erik Satie, Buckminster Fuller, Marshall McLuhan, life.

As early as 1939 Cage became interested in electronics. He believed that his Imaginary Landscape No. 5 (1952) was the first piece of magnetic ‐tape music to be created in America. In the 1960s Cage decided that pure electronic music might be boring for a concert audience, since there was nothing to look at. He experimented with placing contact microphones on conventional instruments; once he even placed a mike against his own throat, turned the volume up, and swallowed thunderously. The microphones, with the feedback used as a musical element, produce unbeautiful and often deafening effects. But Cage's belief that man must come to terms with the



loud and ugly noises of modern life accords with his belief that if art has a purpose it is to open the mind and senses of the perceiver to life.

Cage's music became louder and denser. One of his works, HPSCHD (produced in collaboration with Lejaren Hiller, finished in 1968), was created with the aid of a computer. It involves a possibility of playing up to 51 audio tapes and up to seven harpsichord solos simultaneously. A computer printout is supplied with the recording, which gives the listener a program for manipulating the controls of his stereo phonograph. Thus the music can still remain indeterminate in performance. Cheap Imitation (1969), based on a piece by the French composer Erik Satie, replaces the original pitches with randomly selected notes.

Cage's compositions of the 1970s continued to blend electronic noise with elements of indeterminacy. He created the score for the piano work Études Australes (1970) using astronomical charts. His 1979 piece Roaratorio incorporated thousands of sounds from James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake.

The increasing

sophistication

of

computers

helped

shape

Cage's

work

in

the

1980s,

most

notably

in

the stage work Europeras 1 & 2 (1987). The piece, written, designed, staged, and directed by Cage, is essentially a collage of snippets from existing operas woven together by a computer program designed by Cage's assistant, Andrew Culver. The opening performance of Europeras 1 & 2 was itself a casualty of chance, however, when a vagrant set fire to the Frankfurt Opera House a few days before its debut. In all, Cage would complete five Europera works between 1987 and 1991.

Cage was also a prolific author. Drawing on influences like Gertrude Stein and Dada poetry, he created works such as M (1973), Empty Words (1979), Theme and Variations (1992), and X (1983). Some of these Cage designed as performance pieces, which he read aloud to the accompaniment of his own music. In other cases, he relied on computer assistance to generate evocative, semi ‐coherent poetry.

Cage also created and collected visual art: photographs, prints, paintings, and etchings. His musical scores, which eschew conventional notation in favour of idiosyncratic graphic markings, were exhibited in galleries and museums. A collection of his watercolours was exhibited at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. in 1990.

As he grew older, Cage was the recipient of numerous honours and awards. Each milestone

birthday past

the

age

of

60

was

celebrated

with

a series

of

concerts

and

tributes

the

world

over.

He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978, and was one of 50 artists inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1989. In 1981, he received the New York Mayor's Honour Award of Arts and Sciences. The following year, the French government awarded Cage its highest cultural honour when it made him a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. Cage travelled to Japan in 1989 to accept the prestigious Kyoto Prize.

A long ‐time New York City resident, Cage was known as an affable if soft ‐spoken man who was obliging toward young musicians and critics. He would often attend concerts in downtown Manhattan. Cage's only marriage ended in divorce in 1945. For the last 22 years of his life, he lived

with his former collaborator, the choreographer Merce Cunningham. Cage died of a stroke on August 12, 1992.



A: JOHN CAGE AND HIS AMERICAN DESCENDANTSBANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS

FRI 2 NOVEMBER 7PM, STUDIO

John Cage Indeterminacy/Variations II

Interval Florent Ghys An Open Cage* David Lang sunray* Michael Gordon For Madeleine Julia Wolfe Big, Beautiful, Dark and Scary*

* Australian Premiere

Florent Ghys An Open Cage

An Open Cage uses excerpts (printed below) from the 8th part of the ''Diary: How to improve the world (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)'' by John Cage. This moving text, provided courtesy of Laura Kuhn and the John Cage Trust, is a collection of various thoughts on a wide range of topics: American politics, language, music, memories of Schoenberg, quotations of Thoreau, and everyday events of a New York citizen. I consciously chose and re ‐organized the excerpts according to their meaning and musicality. Because this diary is so personal, I felt I spent some time with John Cage while writing this piece. He is a very good friend of mine now.

“This text is a mosaic of remarks each installment of the diary is like a month and this is the eighth I hope to write ten of them because the year originally had ten months that’s why December is called December if while reading the menu you have a feeling that you read it before best thing to do is not to order anything TV interview if you were asked to describe yourself in 3 words what do you say? An open cage Satie was right experience is a form of paralysis I’m gradually learning how to take care of myself it is taking a long time it seems to me that when I die I’ll be in perfect condition dreamt I’ve composed a piece all notes of which were to be prepared and eaten lemon and oil salt and pepper some raw Carla had a doctor’s appointment for 9 o’clock in the morning she was prompt she waited 3 hours at noon the doctor left for lunch Carla went home a few days later she received a bill for the time she’d spent in the waiting room Emilly Bueno said the reason nothing will happen in America to improve matters is most of the people are comfortable the way it is Schoenberg stood in front of the class he asked those who intended to become professional musicians to raise their hands I didn’t put mine up the traffic never stops every now and then a siren horns screeching brakes extremely interesting always unpredictable at first thought I couldn’t sleep through it then found a way of transposing the sounds into images so that they entered into my dreams without waking me up a burglar alarm that last several hours resembled a Brancusi government is a tree its fruits are people essay on civil disobedience as people ripen they drop away from the tree Thoreau instead of picking or buying many flowers that are all the same get just one of a kind put each in its own bottle flower arrangement with space and the possibility of

being easily changed immobile once Suzuki said there seems to be a tendency toward the Good his remark stays in my mind like a melody what could he have meant? we’re all over Latin America we don’t speak Spanish or Portuguese our exploitees don’t speak English now they speak with bombs hoping some day we’ll understand now I go to sleep in the morning ideas will come to me if you



head’s in the clouds keep your feet on the ground if feet are on the ground keep your head in the clouds people ask what the avant garde is and whether it’s finished it isn’t there will always be one the avant garde is flexibility of mind and it follows like day the night from not falling prey to government and education without avant garde nothing would get invented as a New York senior citizen I get public transportation half price except during rush hours I can also go to movies half price if I do so in the afternoons if I take the subway I must buy 2 trips at once in opposite directions round trip with the bus I am free to go wherever I wish.”

‐ Excerpt reprinted by kind permission of Laura Kuhn and the John Cage Trust.

David Lang Sunray

I started thinking about writing a piece called Sunray in 2006, while in residence at MASS MoCA. That summer, my family was staying in the MASS MoCA artist’s housing in North Adams, which is next door to the SUN cleaners. Every morning I would wake up, make a cup of coffee, and stare out the window at the rays of the sun on the cleaner's big sign. Even on rainy mornings I woke up to the rays of the sun. It is dedicated to my father, Daniel Lang, on his 80th birthday.

Michael Gordon for Madeline

I've spent the past year going in and out of synagogues to say Kaddish for Madeline. Of course she wouldn't have approved of all the praying. Madeline came from a different world ‐ a world where Jews grew up in ghettos. I realized all of this only much later. There's plenty of time to think about these things in synagogue because there are so many prayers and who can concentrate on all of them? Madeline loved music and she would take me to concerts when I was little. I would fall asleep but that didn't deter her. She would have loved to be here tonight. This music is for her.

Julia Wolfe Big, Beautiful, Dark, and Scary

This is how life feels right now. – JULIA WOLFE (July, 2002)

B: LECTURE ON NOTHINGComposer and Musicologist LYLE CHAN featuring guest panel discussion

SAT 3 NOVEMBER 1:30PM, STUDIO

Lyle Chan’s compositions have been performed by a diverse range of musicians, including the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, soprano Taryn Fiebig, the choir Cantillation, the New Sydney Wind Quintet, Acacia Ensemble and conductor Shalev Ad‐El, amongst others. His most recent major work is Rendezvous With Destiny for narrator and chamber ensemble, commissioned by the Art Gallery Society of NSW for performance by Mr Bob Carr, Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs.

His unusual approach to writing music results in perpetual works ‐in‐progress with only one work per genre (see www.lylechanmusic.com for a deeper explanation) and means that his works are so far only ever performed in excerpt form. Lyle holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he studied under Conrad Pope, J.Peter Burkholder and the Pro Arte String Quartet. He spent over a decade at ABC Classics, where as Artists, Repertoire and Marketing Manager he spearheaded the production of virtually all important classical recordings in the period, including every winner in the Classical category of the ARIA Award for the eleven consecutive years of 1997 to 2008.



In addition to being a composer, he is also a fully‐qualified neurolinguistic coach and hypnotist (Master Practitioner and Trainer) and passionately pursues personal growth for himself and others. He is currently composing his first opera.

C: AMBIENT EVOLUTIONTHE MUSIC OF JOHN CAGE & BRIAN ENOBANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS

SAT 3 NOVEMBER 3PM, STUDIO

“Cage in particular was influential for me. In his case, composition was a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art.” – BRIAN ENO

John Cage Improvisations ‐‐ Robert Black, bass; David Cossin, percussion

John Cage Sonatas & Interludes (excerpts) ‐‐ Vicky Chow, piano

Brian Eno/Robert Wyatt/Rhett Davies Music for Airports (1/1) (arr Michael Gordon)

Brian Eno Music for Airports (1/2) (arr. David Lang)

Brian Eno Music for Airports (2/1) (arr. Julia Wolfe)

Brian Eno Music for Airports (2/2) (arr. Evan Ziporyn)

Brian Eno was exploring the question of where music could go. Could its home lie somewhere

outside of

the

muzak

of

elevators

and

dentists'

offices

and

outside

of

the

concert

hall

as

well?

Could it exist somewhere in between? Eno was essentially defining Ambient music. Thirty ‐five years ago there were no Ambient departments in record stores. There were no New Age or techno sections, no chill rooms. Music for Airports kicked off a whole web of musics that hadn't existed previously. But the unique factor about Eno's work was that although it could and can exist in the background of everyday life it is music that carries potency and integrity that goes far beyond the incidental. It's music that is carefully, beautifully, brilliantly constructed and its compositional techniques rival the most intricate of symphonies.

What Eno didn't imagine was that his piece would be realized with live musicians. In his analog

studio, methodically stringing out bits of tape and looping them over themselves, he hadn't anticipated that a new generation of musicians would take his music out of the studio and perform it on live instruments in a public forum. At Bang on a Can, we have always searched for the redefinition of music, exploring the boundaries outside of what is expected. This project represents a further step in this exploration. After 35 years, where does this landmark piece fit into our ever expanding definition? The effect has only begun. The Music for Airports revolution is just beginning to unfold.

The live realization of Music for Airports stays close to the source. We have had the great pleasure

of sharing

the

project

plans

with

Brian

Eno

along

the

way.

We

are

indebted

to

him

for

giving

us

the

experience of getting inside and out of this monumental work. ‐ MICHAEL GORDON, DAVID LANG, JULIA WOLFE



D: MUSICIRCUSFEATURING BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS, ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING and Scott Lam ‐ toy piano; Mark Ferguson ‐ toy piano; Wayne Bell ‐ double bass; Nathan Robinson ‐ toy piano, toys, voice; Richard Mills ‐ guitar, voice; Gary Butler ‐ guitar, miscellaneous noisemakers; Timothy Maybury – guitar; Danielle Zorbas – percussion, basic clarinet; AJ Sweeney – mandolin; Lachlan Vercoe – guitar; Michaela Davies ‐ string quartet electronic muscle stimulation; Melissa Lesnie ‐ hula hoop, piano accordion; Jill Twigger ‐ tin whistle; Tara Smith ‐ toy piano; Lucas Ihlein; Nathan Cloud & family.

SAT 3 NOVEMBER 4:30PM, WESTERN FOYERS

Musicircus is one of John Cage’s Omnium Gatherum pieces, first performed at the University of Illinois in 1967. Cage created Musicircus as a musical “happening” in which dozens of performers of all levels simultaneously enact different compositions – on traditional and non ‐traditional instruments, with and without choreography.

Behind it all is the hand of chance: each performer’s actions have been decided by the flip of a coin, the roll of the dice or a page of the I Ching. Unlike standard performances of western art music, musicians participating in Musicircus are given great freedom to play any repertoire and/or sounds they desire in order that they create a new, unique, exciting and unusual configuration of resonance. Audience members weave in and around the players as the separate scores converge and disperse. The resulting experience is an audiovisual cacophony that seems at once chaotic and sublime.

The event is a ‘pan arts’ event in that a wide variety of musicians, artists, actors, dancers, academics, circus acrobats, and other performers are invited to participate. The event is about

inclusivity. A wide range of musical styles, performance genres, levels of experience and ensemble sizes are represented. The overall event may sound random, but is actually precisely controlled by stop/start timing charts. The event begins and ends with space shuttle precision. The audience wanders throughout the space enjoying the unique collision of events. The performers are stationary in assigned locations.

Each performer/group prepares a fixed ‘set’ of music/works/talks/events to perform. The repertoire can be either “relevant” to John Cage (e.g. his works, interests, etc., or works by his associates ‐ Feldman, Wolff, etc.), or ‘irrelevant’ (e.g. standard classical repertoire, folk, opera, pop, jazz, etc.). Performers choose repertoire that falls into either category or a combination of both. Bold, playful and innovative, Musicircus is the future of music as Cage envisaged it.

“We simply had as much going on at a single time as we could muster. And we exercised no aesthetic bias…You should let each thing that happens happen from its own center. Don't go in the direction of one thing “using” another. Then they will all go together beautifully (as birds, airplanes, trucks, radios, etc. do).”

“One very important element is that there should at all times be many people performing simultaneously. The next is that, since none of the musicians are being paid, there being too many

of them, the entire event must be free to the public…In harmony with the separation of this work from conventional economics, I have not made a score nor have I published one of course.” —JOHN CAGE



E: PERMISSION GRANTEDBANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS WITH ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING

SAT 3 NOVEMBER 7PM, THE STUDIO

John Cage 4'33"

Kate Moore Ridgeway * Louis Andriessen Workers Union Terry Riley In C ‐ with Ensemble Offspring

*Australian premiere. Ridgeway was commissioned for the Bang on a Can All‐Stars with the generous support of the all the members of the People’s Commissioning Fund, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation.

Kate Moore Ridgeway

At the

time

I was

commissioned

to

write

Ridgeway

I had

been

exploring

an

ancient

road

that

crossed my hometown in Oxfordshire UK. I moved away from this place when I was little and it was a big event to travel back and become reacquainted with the landscape of my childhood and my memory. The piece is a tribute to the journey going back to the point of one’s origin in life. Life is about searching for identity and place. ‐ Kate Moore

Louis Andriessen Workers Union “This piece is a combination of individual freedom and severe discipline: its rhythm is exactly fixed; the pitch, on the other hand, is indicated only approximately, on a single‐lined stave. It is difficult to play in an ensemble and to remain in step, sort of thing like organising and carrying

on political action”. – LOUIS ANDRIESSEN (1990) Bang on a Can has played a number of works by Louis Andriessen over the years ‐ it has always seemed to us that he is one of the European composers who listened hard to American music, coming up with his own solutions to our national musical problems. In America of the 1960s there were many composers who were experimenting with open forms ‐ pieces that left something unspecified, like the choice of instruments, or the order of musical ideas, or the coordination of the individual parts. Cage's experiments with indeterminacy, Earle Brown's Available Forms, Frederic Rzewski's Coming Together , Terry Riley's In C , early Philip Glass and John Adams ‐ a lot of composers were trying to find out how to take the controls away from making music. WORKERS UNION (1975) is the young(ish) Louis Andriessen's contribution to this approach. Everything is specified in this piece except the notes ‐ the rhythms, the phrases, the attitude are all there, but not the notes. It is clearly a piece that owes something to the American experimental tradition but what that thing is is hard to hear. To me, that's interesting. ‐ David Lang

Terry Riley In C Terry Riley's piece In C is one of the seminal works of the late 20th century. Premiered in 1964, it was the work that introduced the musical style now known as Minimalism to a mainstream audience. Full of repeating cells, insistent rhythms, and high energy, In C is a work that can also be endlessly colourful. It is an "open score," meaning that it can be played by any combination of

instruments. Over the decades, it has been played by percussion ensembles, guitar groups, a Chinese traditional orchestra, and a microtonal band, among hundreds of others. In C had a deep and lasting impact on contemporary classical composers like Steve Reich and John Adams; but it also affected the rock world, influencing artists like John Cale and Brian Eno. ‐ John Schaefer



BANG ON A CAN ALL‐STARS Formed in 1992 by New York’s renowned new ‐music collective Bang on a Can, the Bang on a Can All‐Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra ‐dynamic 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. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the All‐Stars have shattered the definition of what concert music is today.

Together, the All‐Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Burmese circle drum master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Tan Dun, DJ Spooky, and many more. The group’s celebrated projects include their 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.

Their newest project, Field Recordings, is an evening ‐length concert including film, found sound and archival audio and video with specially commissioned new music and projections by some of the world’s most questioning musical thinkers ‐ from the indie pop world (Tyondai Braxton, Nick Zammuto from The Books), the art world (Christian Marclay), electronica (Mira Calix) and experimental classical (Michael Gordon, David Lang, Todd Reynolds, Julia Wolfe). Recent project highlights include the world premiere, performances, and recording of Steve Reich’s 2x5 including a sold ‐out performance at Carnegie Hall; the group’s multiple visits to China for the Beijing Music Festival and Hong Kong Arts Festival; the US tour and Carnegie Hall performance

of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer , an evening ‐length staged concert with Trio Mediaeval; commissioned works by Louis Andriessen, Bill Frisell, Ryuichi Sakamoto and more. With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group's distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All‐Stars have become a genre in their own right.

The All‐Stars record on Cantaloupe Music (www.cantaloupemusic.com) and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch. For up ‐to ‐date information regarding Bang on a Can programs, events, and CD releases, please visit www.bangonacan.org.

Ashley Bathgate (cello) has gained international renown as both a soloist and chamber musician. The New York Times writes “Ms. Bathgate's rich tone, fluid dynamics and imaginative phrasing captured the magic.” Equally at home in both the concert hall and the rock club, Ashley focuses on presenting concerts that draw from a wide range of musical genres. Her dedication to performing classical music is equally matched by her passion to promote new music by today's composers. She is a member of the internationally acclaimed Bang on a Can All‐Stars, the Metropolis Ensemble and two chamber groups of which she is a founding member: TwoSense and Typical Music. As a soloist Ashley has performed on many of the world's great stages including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, the Musiekgebouw and the Barbican. She has been a guest artist with the

American Symphony Orchestra, The Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Windham Chamber Players on multiple occasions. Her radio appearances include performances on WQXR FM’s Young Artist Showcase, NPR's Performance Today and WYNC's New Sounds Live. She has recorded for Naxos, Nonesuch, Cantaloupe Music, La‐La Land Records and Albany Records. Ashley



received her bachelor's degree from Bard College and a master's degree from Yale University where she studied with cellist and Professor Aldo Parisot. She currently resides in New York, NY. www.ashleybathgate.com

Robert Black (double bass) tours the world creating unheard of music for the solo double bass. He collaborates with the most adventurous composers, musicians, dancers, artists, actors, and technophiles from all walks of life. He has commissioned, collaborated, or performed with

musicians from John Cage to D.J. Spooky, Elliott Carter to Meredith Monk, Cecil Taylor to young emerging composers, as well as the Brazilian painter Ige D'Aquino, Japanese choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, the American actor Kathryn Walker, the English sound artist/DJ, Mira Calix and Swiss‐American film maker, Rudy Burckhardt. Robert Black is a founding member of the Bang On A Can All‐Stars. Additional chamber music activities include performances with the Ciompi and Miami String Quartets. He annually appears at the Monadnock Music Festival and the Moab Music Festival. Robert maintains a full teaching schedule at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, the Festival Eleazar de Carvalho (Brazil), and the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program. A recipient of numerous grants, he received a Bessie Award

for his

collaborative

work

with

The

School

of

Hard

Knocks

in

NYC.

His

most

recent

solo

recording

is

a 2 CD set titled Modern American Bass featuring mid ‐20th Century American bass repertoire – released on New World Records in the Fall of 2011. His other solo CDs areState of the Bass (O.O. Discs), The Complete Bass Music of Christian Wolff (Mode Records), The Complete Bass Music of Giacinto (Mode Records). Robert has also recorded for Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Cantaloupe, Koch International, CRI, Opus One, Artifact Recordings, Folkways Records, and others. Additionally, Robert is on the Advisory Board of the international radio series Art of the States, is editor of the "New Scores" column for the journal Bass World, is the Director the International Society of Bassists’ biennial International Composition Competition, and adjudicates for the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City. Robert Black performs on a French double bass made by Charles Brugere in Paris in 1900. He tours with a B‐21 instrument that he commissioned from the French luthier, Patrick Chartonin 2009. www.robertblack.org

Vicky Chow (piano) has performed extensively as a classical and contemporary soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble member, and has been described as “brilliant” (New York Times), “a monster pianist” (Time Out New York) “virtuosic” (New Jersey Star Ledger), “sparkling” with a “feisty technique” (MIT Tech) and “one of the new stars of new music” (Los Angeles Times) Joining the All‐Stars in 2009, Vicky has also performed with other groups such as Wordless Music Orchestra, Opera Cabal, Wet Ink Ensemble, ai ensemble and AXIOM. Her passion has propelled Vicky to work with an A‐to ‐Z of leading composers and musicians such as John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Bryce Dessner (The National) Philip Glass, Glenn Kotche (Wilco), David Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth). Her first solo piano album of music composed by Ryan Francis has been released under the ‘tzadik’ label. She has also recorded for the Cantaloupe and altaVoz labels. In addition to performing, Ms. Chow also produces and curates “Contagious Sounds”, a new music series focusing on adventurous contemporary artists and composers at the Gershwin Hotel in New York City. She has received continuous support from the Canada Council for the Arts and have received grants from the Fromm Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, and the BC Arts Council. Originally from Vancouver Canada, Ms. Chow studied at The Juilliard School with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin (B.M, M.M. ‘Piano Performance’) before continuing studies at Manhattan School of Music (M.M., P.S. ‘Contemporary Performance’) with Christopher Oldfather. Starting the piano at age 5, she was invited to perform at the age of 9 at the International Gilmore Music Keyboard. She made her orchestral debut at the age of 10 with the Vancouver Symphony



Orchestra made her last orchestral appearance at Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Symphony performing Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Ms. Chow resides in New York City. www.vickychow.com

David Cossin (percussion) was born and raised in Queens, New York, and studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. His interest in classical percussion, drum set, non ‐western hand drumming, composition, and improvisation has led to performances across a broad

spectrum of musical and artistic forms to incorporate new media with percussion. David has recorded and performed internationally with composers and ensembles including Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo‐Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio, Real Quiet. Numerous theater projects include collaborations with Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and director Peter Sellars. David was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Dun’s Grammy and Oscar winning score to Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Most recently, David is happy to have performed with Sting on his latest world tour, Symphonicity. David has performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sao Paulo State Symphony,

Sydney Symphony,

Gothenburg

Symphony,

Hong

Kong

Symphony,

and

the

Singapore

Symphony.

David ventures into other art forms include sonic installations, which have been presented in New York, Italy and Germany. David is also an active composer and has invented several new instruments, which expand the limits of traditional percussion. David is the curator for the Sound Res Festival, an experimental music festival in southern Italy and also teaches percussion at Queens College in New York City. www.davidcossin.com

Mark Stewart (guitar) Raised in America's Dairy Land of Wisconsin, Multi ‐instrumentalist, singer, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. Going to conservatory to study both guitar and cello, he came to NYC to work as a

performer on both instruments; however upon completing school he was most drawn to the electric guitar. Today Mark plays regularly with with a wide range of musicians: since 1998 he has recorded, toured and been Musical Director with Paul Simon. A founding member of the Bang on a Can All‐Stars, Mark is also a member of Steve Reich & Musicians and the comic duo Polygraph Lounge with keyboard & theremin wizard Rob Schwimmer and has performed with Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bobby McFerrin, Paul McCartney, the Everly Brothers, David Byrne, & James Taylor. Mark has collaborated extensively with composer Elliot Goldenthal on music for the feature films The Tempest, Across the Universe, Titus, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, In Dreams, and Heat, often playing instruments of his own design and construction. He is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music & his New York Lower East Side "lab" is home to an instrument workshop and sonic salon where traditional and new instruments cohabitate. Stewart can be heard on Warner Bros., Sony, Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Nonesuch, Label Bleu, Resonance Magnetique, Cantaloupe and CRI recordings. He lives in New York City making his living playing and writing popular music, semi ‐popular music and unpopular music.

Ken Thomson (clarinet) is a Brooklyn ‐based clarinettist, saxophonist, and composer. Called “the hardest ‐working saxophonist in new ‐music show business” by Time Out NY, he performs with the 13 ‐year running punk/jazz collective Gutbucket, is a member of contemporary chamber ensemble

Signal, and co‐leads Bang on a Can’s newest band, the Asphalt Orchestra: a 12 ‐piece next ‐generation mobile ensemble. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, the True/False Film Festival, and others, and has received awards from ASCAP and Meet the Composer. He is on faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer



Festival. He is a Conn ‐Selmer/Selmer Paris Artist, and endorses Sibelius Software and AMT microphones. His first CD as a leader with his group Slow/Fast, "It Would Be Easier If" (Intuition Records), hit multiple Top of the Year lists; The New York Times review spoke of the “intricately wrought and incident ‐steeped” compositions and “gutsy precision of the playing.” He is currently working on a followup Slow/Fast CD and a record of his string quartets with JACK Quartet. www.ktonline.net

Andrew Cotton (sound design/engineer) works with several major London producers, specializing in contemporary music projects with artists and concert series as diverse as Elvis Costello & John Harle, the BBC Promenade Series, Meltdown, George Russell, Carla Bley & Talvin Singh. He collaborates with composers Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe & David Lang on their pieces for the All‐Stars as well as large ensemble, dance & theatre pieces. He also acts as technical manager and sound collaborator with percussionist Evelyn Glennie DBE.

John Cage, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon



ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING Ensemble Offspring is a dynamic Sydney ‐based organisation dedicated to the performance of innovative new music. Driven by open ‐mindedness and performance excellence, Ensemble Offspring’s activities promote diverse and emerging music practices that expose audiences to new ways of experiencing sound. The group embraces a broad and progressive repertoire from seminal chamber music of the past 50 years, to free improvisation and the creation of striking interdisciplinary productions.

Led by Artistic Directors Claire Edwardes (percussion) and Damien Ricketson (composer), the ensemble comprises a team of virtuoso performers with broad ranging talents: some performing concertos with renowned symphony orchestras and others touring the world with indie pop bands.

In 2011 Ensemble Offspring was nominated in nine categories at the 2011 Art Music Awards. Recent highlights include the 2010 Sydney Festival, Ensemble ‐in‐Residence at the 2010 ISCM World New Music Days and an international tour to China (2011). Performing in venues ranging

from the Sydney Opera House to local Sydney bowling clubs, Ensemble Offspring has developed a reputation for its uniquely adventurous and engaging programs. Upcoming projects fuse turntables and acoustic instruments in “On Loop” (Syd Dec 1 & Melb Dec 6) and a reinvention of the Ligeti canon in a collaboration with electronic duo Martin Ng and Oren Ambarchi as part of the 2013 Sydney Festival (Jan 11 ‐13)

Claire Edwardes is a leading interpreter of contemporary classical music and Co‐Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring. Recent career highlights include concertos with the Vector Wellington Orchestra (New Zealand) & The Queensland Symphony Orchestra as well as solo festival appearances at Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music (UK), Port Fairy Spring Music Festival (Victoria) and Mona Foma (Hobart). In 2012 & 2007 she was awarded the AMC/APRA Art Music Award for Excellence in Australian Music, in 2005 she was the recipient of the MCA Freedman Fellowship and in 1999 she was named Australian Young Performer of the Year. ‐claireedwardes.com

Damien Ricketson is a composer and Co‐Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring. Damien’s music is characterised by exotic sound ‐worlds and novel forms and has frequently been featured in Ensemble Offspring events. Recent works have included Fractured Again, a major multimedia production that toured China and featured in the Sydney Festival and Some Shade of Blue, a microtonal work for a newly invented instrument, the undachin tarhu. Damien is lecturer in composition at the Sydney Conservatorium and is currently working on a show ‐length project exploring music and secrecy. ‐ curiousnoise.com

Zubin Kanga has recently performed at the Aldeburgh (UK), Borealis (Norway) and London 2012 Festivals as well as appearing as soloist with the London Sinfonietta. In the past two years, he has been awarded the Michael Kieran Harvey Scholarship, the Limelight Award for Best Newcomer and the NSW State Award for Performance of the Year at the AMC/APRA Art Music Awards. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, he has collaborated with many of the world’s leading composers including Michael Finnissy, George Benjamin and Beat Furrer. ‐ zubinkanga.com

Anna McMichael recently returned to live in Australia after 17 years in Europe performing in many of the major ensembles and orchestras. In Australia she has performed as guest assistant leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, guest associate concertmaster of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and guest concertmaster of Orchestra Victoria. Anna has performed at many European



music festivals and ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, Amsterdam Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra, Nieuw Ensemble, ASKO/Schoenberg ensemble, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Lamorna Nightingale has been featured in numerous marathon length Feldman performances, regional Australian tours and Sizzles. She regularly performs with the Sydney Symphony, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra as well as the Australian Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist she

recently released a recording of new Australian music for flute, Eat Chocolate and Cry and in her role as a flute mentor, she has published a range of flute teaching materials.

Jason Noble is a freelance clarinettist specialising in contemporary classical repertoire. He has performed at many prestigious festivals such as the Warsaw Autumn, Aldeburgh Festival, Musica Viva Festival and Sydney Festival. Jason has been an integral member of Ensemble Offspring for many years whilst also performing with Halcyon, Sydney Children’s Choir, the indigenous women’s group from the Tiwi Islands, Ngarukuruwala and singer Holly Throsby. He teaches in the Musicology faculty at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and maintains a strong interest in teaching his craft to the next generation.

Diana Springford has been of a member of Ensemble Offspring since the early years. She has also performed with Halcyon Ensemble, the Chambermaids Wind Quintet, Clarity Quartet, Synergy Percussion and has recorded for SBS TV, 2MBSFM and the ABC. She examined for the AMEB and taught clarinet and saxophone for many years. In a previous life at the University of Wollongong she tutored and lectured philosophy and undertook a PhD thesis on the philosophical understanding of the relationship between music and politics.

John Cage – Water Walk (January 1959), for solo television performer

Sydney Opera House Trust Kim Williams AM (Chair) Catherine Brenner The Hon Helen Coonan Wesley Enoch Renata Kaldor AO Robert Leece AM

Mr Peter Mason AM Dr Thomas Parry AM Leo Schofield AM Mr John Symond AM

Sydney Opera House Executive Chief Executive Officer: Louise Herron Executive Producer, SOH Presents: Jonathan Bielski Director, Theatre & Events: David Claringbold Director, Marketing, Communications and Customer Services: Victoria Doidge Director, Building Development & Maintenance: Greg McTaggart Chief Financial Officer: Claire Spencer

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Cage Centenary Program_FINAL