The Hamilton College Performing Arts series opens the spring semester with the Bang on a Can All-Stars on Friday, Jan. 21, at 8 p.m. at Wellin Hall in the Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts.
It's not a rock band, not a jazz combo, not a chamber ensemble. It's all three, only different. It's Bang on a Can All-Stars, an instrumental group from New York, which plays intellectually stimulating, gut-enjoyable music by living composers of all backgrounds.
Since its inception in 1987, the Bang on a Can festival has been discovering and presenting the most exciting performers who have committed their lives to the music of our time. Over 10 years, Bang on a Can has found a number of these musicians -- performers who are adventurous, virtuosic, dynamic and intense, who are equally at home with the diverse styles that exist within music today. Six players in particular kept coming back. They were among the festival's finest artists -- six of the most accomplished performers of new music in the world. With these six players the festival created the Bang on a Can All-Stars.
The instrumentation of the Bang on a Can All-Stars is unique: clarinets, electric guitar, cello, bass, keyboards, drums and percussion. Part classical ensemble, part rock band, part jazz band, it has a flexibility that represents the vision of the festival, whose artistic directors, Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe believe in the communicative power of a wide range of music from a new generation of composers and performers. The Bang on a Can All-Stars first major collaboration as an ensemble came in 1989 and since that time, their appearances have grown from being a regular feature of the Bang on a Can Festival to year-round appearances at concert halls and festivals worldwide.
Tickets for this performance are $18 for adults, $12 for senior citizens and $5 for students. All seating is general admission. For more information or tickets, call the box office at (315) 859-4331, 1-4 p.m. weekdays.
