Category Archives: Contemporary

Two takes on meditation: MONO and the Wordless Music Orchestra

Posted on May 9, 2009 | Leave a comment
Bodies in motion: MONO at the Society for Ethical Culture. (Photo by SPM. All Rights reserved.)

Bodies in motion: MONO at the Society for Ethical Culture. (Photo by SPM. All Rights reserved.)

Perhaps it was the venue (the churchlike Society for Ethical Culture on Central Park West in Manhattan), or perhaps it was the fact that the opening act was a string orchestra, but the crowd at Japanese noise rock band MONO‘s sold-out 10th anniversary show last night (the show repeats tonight at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village) was about as reverential as they come. One fan positioned near the front in the center section insisted on standing up during the performance and was eventually ejected.

It was good to see a rock audience pay attention to the music, remarkable, in fact. It’s in part due to the decisive impact that Wordless Music, which presented last night’s show, is having on New York’s music scene. Promoter Ronen Givony is certainly not the first person to pair classical and rock artists on a bill or to bring those two divergent musical worlds together. (Think of Procol Harum recording an album with Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, for instance, or many of Bang on a Can’s show, to name just two.) But Wordless Music has really struck a chord over and over again in its short life.  (The inaugural Wordless Music show as Sept. 18, 2006, and featured Glenn Kotche, Nels Cline, Jenn Lin and Elliot Sharp.)

The instrumental quartet MONO has a huge cult following here in the U.S. Continue reading →

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Posted in Contemporary, Music, Pop and Rock

EXCLUSIVE: Meredith Monk added to Bang on a Can benefit lineup

Posted on May 8, 2009 | Leave a comment
Meredith Monk

Meredith Monk

Meredith Monk has just agreed to perform at this year’s Bang on a Can Benefit, the annual dinner raise money for the NYC-based New Music collective and its wide-ranging efforts to bring cutting-edge, genre-bending music to the world, Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? can exclusively report.

Meredith is an integral part of the New Music scene and a longtime collaborator with Bang on a Can. It’s exciting news that she’s joining an already impressive  roster that already includes performances by 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning composer Steve Reich (with Bang on a Can All Star’s percussionist, David Cossin), pipa master Wu Man, amazing cellist Maya Beiser, the explosive percussion quartet Talujon, and video by celebrated artist Doug Aitken.

This annual fund-raising concert and dinner is moving to a new venue this year — (le) poisson rouge, the young club on Bleecker Street in NYC’s West Village that has quickly established itself as a home for New Music. The benefit has been a floating party over the last few years since its inception, making stops at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden, the Angel Orensanz Cultural Center on the Lower East Side and at Pace galleries in Chelsea.

This year’s event honors Joseph Thompson, Founding Director of The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Mass., which hosts Bang on a Can’s annual Summer Music Festival.

Ban on a Can founding composers Michael Gordon, David Langand Julia Wolfe issued this statement about Thompson:

“Joe envisions art in the world not as a market to be served or as a trend to be spotted, but as an action whose appreciation can ennoble the community of those who appreciate it. Art at MASS MoCA is constantly mixed with performance, theater, dance and even the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, all in the service of bringing art into the community and bringing the community into the museum. It is an optimistic, even utopian, notion that challenging convention through art can link us all together. Joe has always used risky, uncompromising art to highlight the interdependence of people, work, community and industry. With all our hearts, we are rooting for him.”

Stay tuned to WYMMWIG? for more details as the date approaches.

As a warmup for the benefit, don’t forget the free 12-hour Bang on a Can Marathon from noon to midnight on Sunday, May 31 at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden.

6 p.m. cocktails, 7 p.m. concert and dinner.  Wednesday, June 3. At (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan), Manhattan. www.bangonacan.org. $400 (partly tax deductible).

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Posted in Contemporary, Music