wolfe

The multi-talented Julia Wolfe, whose background includes theater, dance, and vocal training, approaches music composition with a sensibility that combines the best of these art forms. Regarded as one of the key voices of her generation, Wolfe's music is muscular and kinetic and experienced through the body. She creates journeys like unfolding dramatic landscapes, a music meant to be entered into by the listener, a music of "rare, strange beauty" says composer Evan Ziporyn. With influences as varied as Beethoven, Motown, and Led Zeppelin, Wolfe's compositions often contain bold, direct attacks, the body energy of pop music, the unreigned expressiveness of rock and roll and, above all, a sheer delight in sound. [read more]

BANG ON A CAN:

Founded in 1987 by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, Bang on a Can brings innovative and adventurous music of our time to broad and diverse audiences in New York and internationally. We aim to discover and support composers and ensembles that explore new musical territories, reaching for a musical expression beyond the status quo. Our resident ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, performs a unique repertoire that reflects a multiplicity of musical traditions that meet in inspiring and unforeseen places.

With more than fifty annual concerts; the Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music at MASS MoCA, the nation’s first residency program for experimental composers and performers; dozens of commissions and recordings; collaborations with leading visual, film, and performance artists; as well as numerous radio and web broadcasts, we reach 350,000 listeners in New York and around the world.

A significant contributor to New York’s cultural life, Bang on a Can performs at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (Great Performers), Brooklyn Academy of Music (the Next Wave Festival), Carnegie Hall, Miller Theatre, and at numerous venues across the US and around the world including: the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, DC; UCLA, CA; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN; Prague Spring Festival, The Czech Republic; Venice Biennale, Italy; Scheswig-Holstein and Berlin Festivals, Germany; Athens Concert Hall, Greece; Sydney Opera House, Australia; and Theatre de la Ville in Paris, France.

"BELIEVING" 8:59 min
Performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars

“Belief is such a powerful thing,” says Wolfe. “For me the word is full of optimism and at the same time full of struggle. It's often hard to believe, and almost always liberating. At the time I wrote “Believing” the optimism I felt was huge and my belief strong. Also, while I was working on the piece I was listening to the Beatles’ “Tomorrow never knows”. It's such a fantastic song – very psychedelic - written at a time when the Beatles were exploring spiritual questions. You can hear it in the music. There's a line, "It is believing" that comes back again and again. While there are no musical quotes from the song in my work, it was an inspiration. “Believing “was written for the Bang on a Can All-Stars and was commissioned by NPS Dutch Radio. It is recorded by the Bang on a Can All-Stars on the CD Renegade Heaven released on Cantaloupe Music.

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Wolfe is currently working on a piece for accordion and a large ensemble of 15. “I’ve written a lot of music that sounds like accordion, but never actually used the instrument before,” she says. “It has a very earthy sound and folky association. Though there are classical accordionists, it’s that earthy folky aspect I love about it.”

If you could make a piece for the current White House, what would it be?

Oh god! What should George Bush listen to? Maybe I’d play him the last piece I wrote , which is called “My Beautiful Scream.” It starts with breath – an air sound played on the bridge of a violin. The Kronos Quartet plays it and it’s mostly them unfolding into a kind of cry.

What is the most important responsibility of an artist?

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Louis Andriessen. Andriessen is a Dutch composer. He is certainly the most radical composer working in Europe. He has two early works that are real knockouts: De Staat (The State) and De Tijd (Time). Both are for large unconventional ensembles and are quite expansive. These works are recorded on the Nonesuch label as well as on the Dutch label Composers Voice.

Beryl Korot. An early pioneer in video art, Beryl Korot's recent work for stage, Three Tales, is a collaboration with composer Steve Reich. An installation of the section "Bikini" (referring to the island where the atomic experiments took place) is a part of a show that opens this week September 8 at Apex Gallery in Tribeca, New York City.

Lost Objects. This fall beginning November 30 the Next Wave Festival at BAM will be presenting a multi media oratorio that I have written with fellow composers Michael Gordon and David Lang with libretto by Deborah Artman. The baroque orchestra Concerto Koln will perform with an amplified Bang on a Can ensemble, a choir, three solo singers and DJ Spooky. The staging will be by Francois Girard (32 Short Films about Glenn Gould, The Red Violin). The subject: Simple objects lost everyday to larger experiences of loss - lost explorers, lost ritual, lost technology . . .

Oumou Sangare, is singer from Mali known as "Mali's great diva, champion of women's rights, and one of the world's most astounding female voices." Nonesuch Records - A beautiful earthy recording. Her voice is incredibly rich and the sensibility fine.

Johann Sebastian Bach, French Suites performed by Glenn Gould, Suite No. 5 in G major 7th movement . I was listening to this the other day. .Just a completely sublime experience.

Decasia - Bill Morrison's instant cult classic film. Bill took old film stock in which the nitrate has caused the film to decay in beautiful ways. A thunderous symphonic score by Michael Gordon. Art at St. Ann's in Brooklyn Sept.9-12. Also available on DVD.

A Chance Meeting by Rachel Cohen - A series of short essays that intertwine the lives of American artists, writers, composers and others from the mid 19th Century to the present. Thoughtful, smart, and beautifully done.

Zippo Songs - Phil Klines’ surreal setting of Vietnam Vet's cigarette lighter poetry and settings of Rumsfeld statements makes for greatly sad and ironic music. Performed live Sept 28 - at Merkin Concert Hall NYC. CD available on Cantaloupe Music.

MASS MoCA - An amazing contemporary art museum created out of an old factory in North Adams, Massachussetts. Right now the show is The Interventionists. I particularly liked the piece that was an inflatable homeless shelter made of a fine cloudy material. Also, J. Morgan Puett's sewing house was quite striking.