thirteen ways

I was watching Groundhog Day in my plush hotel room, on the Westin Hotel’s “Heavenly Bed”, trying not to think about our important Chamber Music America conference concert later in the afternoon, when the Duv called to find out where the bloody hell I was – that we had a meeting with the loverly Bang on a Can folks that I was missing….

Our huge project for next year, by far the biggest project in the ensemble’s history (one for which the commissioning costs are so large they still make me blush), is a concert of new works by Steve Reich and the Bang on a Can composers (Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon). The BoaC folks will provide a 45 minute first half, Reich a 20 minute second half. The concert will be totally memorized and our movement choreographed by the fabulous and highly regarded Susan Marshall.

When I finally arrived, Susan was quizzing the group on what we were prepared to do, movement-wise. We talked a little about how it would be possible to get everyone (including percussion, piano and cello – traditionally stationary, even in 8bb performances) moving around the stage, and debated which should come first – movement ideas or musical ideas. Possible overarching “themes” were discussed, abandoned, discussed, abandoned; one such theme touched on was “love”.

The importance of due dates was brought home (we really need the music by September 2007 because of the huge amount of work to be done before the Richmond premiere in March 2008). We talked of possible workshop opportunities for the work in November – maybe in New York, maybe in Chicago – with all and sundry present.

Very. Bloody. Exciting.

Bring on 07/08!

L to R: Susan Marshall, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe and David Lang.