The Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can Present
Bang on a Can: Revolution of the Eye
Featuring the Bang on a Can All-Stars
May 14 Concert Tied to Exhibition Exploring How Art
Influenced the Look and Content of Early Network Television
Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television
New York, NY – Bang on a Can: Revolution of the Eye, a concert featuring New York’s electric chamber ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, will take place at the Jewish Museum on Thursday, May 14 at 7:30pm. Tied to the Museum exhibition Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television—the first exhibition to explore how avant-garde art influenced and shaped the look and content of network television in its formative years, from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s—the performance will highlight the relationship between music and image. This program is the fourth concert of the Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can’s partnership to produce a series of dynamic musical performances at the Museum inspired by the Jewish Museum’s diverse slate of exhibitions.
This concert by the Bang on a Can All-Stars highlights the relationship between music and image. The All-Stars will perform an acclaimed work by jazz giant Don Byron to accompany a screening of Eugene, an early television show by pioneering comedian Ernie Kovacs. In 2000, Bang on a Can commissioned Don Byron to write a score for the iconic show, which was completely silent and broadcast on national TV in 1961. The program will also include Fade to Slide, a music and video piece from the All-Stars’ new Cantaloupe Music album Field Recordings (released on May 12) by visual artist Christian Marclay. In Fade to Slide, short fragments of films are edited into a rapid succession of events that the musicians use as a structure for their performance. Marclay’s 24 hour film The Clock was installed last year at the Museum of Modern Art. Other works to be performed include Don Byron’s Basquiat, David Lang’s sunray, and Julia Wolfe’s Lick.
About Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television
From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, the pioneers of American television—many of them young, Jewish, and aesthetically adventurous— adopted modernism as a source of inspiration. Revolution of the Eye looks at how the dynamic new medium, in its risk-taking and aesthetic experimentation, paralleled and embraced cutting-edge art and design. Highlighting the visual revolution ushered in by American television and modernist art and design of the 1950s and 1960s, the exhibition features over 260 art objects, artifacts, and clips. Fine art and graphic design, including works by Saul Bass, Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Georgia O’Keefe, and Andy Warhol, as well as ephemera, television memorabilia, and clips from film and television, including Batman, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, and The Twilight Zone will be on view. Revolution of the Eye also examines television’s promotion of avant-garde ideals and aesthetics; its facility as a promotional platform for modern artists, designers, and critics; its role as a committed patron of the work of modern artists and designers; and as a medium whose relevance in contemporary culture was validated by the Museum of Modern Art’s historic Television Project (1952-55).
The partnership launched in June 2014 with a free, outdoor, kick-off performance by Asphalt Orchestra as part of the Museum Mile Festival; a July concert in conjunction with the exhibition, Other Primary Structures; a November concert connected to the exhibition, From the Margins; and a January concert celebrating the Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power exhibition.
Tickets for the May 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.
About the Bang on a Can All-Stars
Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars (Ashley Bathgate, Cello; Robert Blac, Bass; Vicky Chow, Piano; David Cossin, Percussion; Mark Stewart, Electric Guitar; Ken Thomson, Clarinets/Saxophone) 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 m ost 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.
Recent project highlights include Field Recordings, a major new multi media project featuring up to 18 commissioned works by Tyondai Braxton, Mira Calix, Anna Clyne, Dan Deacon, Bryce Dessner, Florent Ghys, Michael Gordon, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Christian Marclay, Paula Matthusen, Richard Reed Parry, Steve Reich, Todd Reynolds, Daniel Wohl, Julia Wolfe, and Nick Zammuto; the world premiere, performances, and recording of Steve Reich’s 2×5 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 2014 record release of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, featuring Trio Mediaeval and the premiere performances of Wolfe’s Anthracite Fieldsfor the All-Stars and guest choir on the NY Phil Biennial; 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 and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.
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 curated 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.
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