On Saturday, November 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall presents trailblazing new music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars and celebrated early music vocalists Trio Mediaeval performing the New York premiere of composer Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall. The work that brings these two visionary groups together, Steel Hammer, is based on the nineteenth century Appalachian legend of railroad steel driver John Henry, who facing replacement by a steam-powered driver, challenges the machine to save his job and the
jobs of his men. Henry beats the machine, but collapses, exhausted, and dies. Wolfe’s work combines mountain dulcimer, banjo, harmonica, bones, clogging, and body percussion with scenic design and the pure folk sound of Trio Mediaeval alongside the amplified All-Star lineup.Wolfe, who co-founded Bang on a Can with composers Michael Gordon and David Lang, says about her new work, "John Henry, wielding a steel hammer, faces the onslaught of the industrial age as his superhuman strength is challenged in a contest to out-dig an engine. I drew upon the extreme variations of the story, fragmenting and weaving the contradictory versions of the ballad that have circulated since the late 1800s into a new whole—at times meditating on single words or phrases—in order to tell the story of the story—to embody the simultaneous diverse paths it traveled."
Steel Hammer, with sound by Jody Elff and scenic design by Jim Findlay, will also be performed this fall in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Wolfe’s first CD since 2003, Dark Full Ride—featuring performances by All-Star bassist Robert Black as well as pianist Lisa Moore, bagpiper Matthew Welch, and the Talujon Percussion Quartet—will be released on the Cantaloupe label on November 10.
Artist Information
Julia Wolfe's music is heard around the world in performances at the Next Wave Festival at BAM, the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Settembre Musica (Italy), the Holland Festival, Theatre de la Ville (Paris), the San Francisco Symphony, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, and more. Upcoming works include a new work FUEL for Ensemble Resonanz with a film by Bill Morrison, and an evening-length work with film for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Recent works include My Beautiful Scream for Kronos and Orchestra, Cruel Sister for string orchestra, Impatience for the Asko Ensemble to the film of the same name by early Belgian experimentalist Charles Dekeukeleire, and an accordion concerto commissioned by the Miller Theater and written for Guy Klucevsek. Her recording Julia Wolfe - The String Quartets was released on the Cantaloupe label. Wolfe's music has also been recorded on Teldec, Universal, Sony Classical, and Argo/Decca.
At the very beginning of Bang on a Can, founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe recognized that their new and open approach to presenting required new and open performers. A new generation of virtuosic and passionate performers was needed to make this music come alive. These new players needed new skills. They had to be able to cross musical boundaries and be at home with many styles and technologies. They started assembling a core of exciting, dedicated, and versatile players, and these performers started showing up with regularity from festival to festival. Out of this core, in 1992, they assembled the Bang on a Can All-Stars.
Currently comprised of cellist Ashley Bathgate, bassist Robert Black, percussionist David Cossin, guitarist Mark Stewart, clarinetist Evan Ziporyn, and guest pianists David Friend and Vicky Chow, the instrumentation itself shows the aesthetic intention for which the All-Stars were designed—part rock band and part amplified chamber group. Constructed specifically to blur the lines between classical and pop ensembles, the line-up was chosen to give voice to a huge range of music and styles, and the players have the musical backgrounds and abilities to match. Each player is completely at home with new music but has lived somewhere else as well—collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma, leading a gamelan, backing Mikhail Baryshnikov, touring with Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. The players bring their otherworldly experiences back to their life with the All-Stars, and their mixing creates an intense, hard-rocking approach to performance that no other group can match.
Founded in Oslo in 1997, Trio Mediaeval has developed three distinct strands of repertoire: polyphonic medieval music from England and France, contemporary works, and Norwegian medieval ballads and songs. The group's initial phase was inspired by intense periods of work at the Hilliard Summer Festival in England and Germany, and subsequently with John Potter of the Hilliard Ensemble and Linda Hirst. The ensemble released its first CD on ECM Records in 2001. Words of the Angel immediately went to the Billboard Top 10 and was the April 2002 Stereophile "Recording of the Month." The trio’s subsequent CDs on ECM Records—Soir, dit-elle in 2004, Stella Maris in 2005, and Folk Songs in 2007—continued to bring the group acclaim.
The trio has collaborated with many composers, including Gavin Bryars, Ivan Moody, Roger Marsh, Paul Robinson, Piers Hellawell, Isobel Davies, William Brooks, Bjørn Kruse, Andrew Smith, Trygve Seim, Tord Gustavsen, and Sungji Hong. In 2005, Trio Mediaeval performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York with the German musikFabrik in a contemporary oratorio with projections called Shelter with music by the American composer-trio of Bang on a Can: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. The work had its European premiere in Cologne and Essen in Germany in 2006 and has since then been performed in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Oslo, and St. Pölten.
Program Information
Saturday, November 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS
TRIO MEDIAEVAL
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Ashley Bathgate, Cello
Robert Black, Bass
David Cossin, Percussion
David Friend, Piano
Mark Stewart, Electric Guitar
Evan Ziporyn, Clarinets
Jody Elff, Sound Engineer
Jim Findlay, Scenic Designer
Trio Mediaeval
Anna Maria Friman
Linn Andrea Fuglseth
Torunn Østrem Ossum
JULIA WOLFE Steel Hammer (NY Premiere, commissioned by Bang on a Can with generous support from Maria and Robert A. Skirnick and Carnegie Hall)
Pre-concert talk starts at 6:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall: Julia Wolfe in conversation with John Schaefer, Host of WNYC’s Soundcheck and New Sounds.
This tour of Bang on a Can All-Stars is made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program.
Tickets: $37, $47
Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.
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