The Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can Present
Bang on a Can: Performance by Don Byron
Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 7:30pm
Scheuer Auditorium at The Jewish Museum
1109 5th Ave at 92nd St | New York, NY
Tickets: $18 General; $15 Students and Seniors; $12 Jewish Museum
and Bang on a Can Members at www.thejewishmuseum.org
New York, NY – On Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 7:30pm, Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum will present a concert by clarinetist-composer Don Byron. A long-time collaborator of Bang on a Can, Byron has always found exhilarating and unexpected musical avenues to explore, interpreting a wildly diverse range of styles and artists from funk-drenched R&B to klezmer, from gospel legend Thomas A. Dorsey to Mickey Katz, Duke Ellington to Junior Walker. Don Byron is renowned for his dedication to and innovation in quintessential American traditional music genres from klezmer to blues to bluegrass to gospel to jazz. This program is made possible by a generous endowment from the William Petschek Family.
For over two decades, Don Byron, a recipient of the first Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, has been a singular voice in an astounding range of musical contexts, exploring widely divergent traditions while continually striving for what he calls “a sound above genre.”
As clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic, he redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical, salsa, hip-hop, funk, rhythm & blues, klezmer, or any jazz style from swing and bop to cutting-edge downtown improvisation. He has been consistently voted best clarinetist by critics and readers alike in leading international music journals since being named “Jazz Artist of the Year” by Down Beatin 1992. Acclaimed as much for his restless creativity as for his unsurpassed virtuosity as a player, Byron has presented a multitude of projects at major music festivals around the world.
This summer concert continues the third season of the Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can’s partnership, producing dynamic musical performances inspired by the Museum’s diverse slate of exhibitions. The 2016-2017 series includes five programs, primarily in the Jewish Museum’s Scheuer Auditorium (Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street). The season launched with a free outdoor performance by Mariachi Flor de Toloache at the June 14 Museum Mile Festival, and in addition to the July 14 Don Byron concert, will feature a Thursday, November 10 concert by Pauline Oliveros, a Thursday, February 16, 2017 concert by Florent Ghys/Bonjour, and a Thursday, April 27, 2017 concert by Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow playing music by Tristan Perich.
Tickets for the July 14 program are $18 general public; $15 students and senior citizens; and $12 for Jewish Museum members and Bang on a Can list members, and include exhibition admission prior to the performance. Further program and ticket information is available by calling 212.423.3337 or at TheJewishMuseum.org/calendar. The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, Manhattan.
Support
Public Programming at the Jewish Museum is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
About Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Founded by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, who curatored the first Marathon concert in 1987 and remain co-Artistic Directors to this day, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found. With adventurous programs, it commissions new composers; performs, presents, and records new work; develops new audiences; and educates the musicians of the future. “Bang on a Can plays “a central role in fostering a new kind of audience that doesn’t concern itself with boundaries. If music is made with originality and integrity, these listeners will come” (The New York Times). Current projects include the annual Bang on a Can Marathon; The People’s Commissioning Fund, a membership program to commission emerging composers; the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who tour to major festivals and concert venues around the world; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a professional development program for young musicians; Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can’s extreme street band; and Found Sound Nation, a musical outreach program partnering with the U.S. State Department to create OneBeat, a program that bridges the gulf between young American musicians and young musicians from developing countries. For more information, visit www.bangonacan.org.
About the Jewish Museum
Located on Museum Mile at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, the Jewish Museum is one of the world’s preeminent institutions devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary, offering intellectually engaging, educational, and provocative exhibitions and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary as the core of a museum collection. Today, the Museum maintains a collection of over 30,000 works of art, artifacts, and broadcast media reflecting global Jewish identity, and presents a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed temporary exhibitions.
The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City. Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to 4pm. Museum admission is $15.00 for adults, $12.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for visitors 18 and under and Jewish Museum members. Admission is Pay What You Wish on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm and free on Saturdays. For information on the Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3200 or visit the website at www.thejewishmuseum.org.
