Iva Bittova @ the Bang on a Can Marathon 2007 www.feastofmusic.com

NEW YORK, NY February 01, 2008 —

BANG ON A CAN PEOPLE’S COMMISSIONING FUND CONCERT
The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform 3 world premieres *commissioned by the people*, with special guest Iva Bittova.

TRISTAN PERICH | ERDEM HELVACIOĞLU | KEN THOMSON | IVA BITTOVA
Perich: tba*
Helvacioğlu: tba*
Thomson: “seasonal.disorder”*
Bittova & Bang on a Can All-Stars: Live Improvisation
*World Premieres

Merkin Hall
at Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th Street
(between Broadway and Amsterdam)
» Tickets
» New Sounds Live 2007-2008 Concert Season

The Bang on a Can All-Stars, New York’s electric chamber ensemble, take on new works commissioned by the People, for the People, in this 2008 People’s Commissioning Fund Concert. Experience new works by Turkish electroacoustic composer Erdem Helvacioglu, avant-garde inventor Tristan Perich and Ken Thomson, who writes for everyone from the American Composers Orchestra to his own band, Gutbucket. Plus, from the Czech Republic, special guest avant-gypsy-folk singer and violin player Iva Bittova joins the All-Stars onstage for a rare collaborative performance that will “light your ears on fire,” according to the blogger “rollhead.” Bonus live introductions and interviews with host John Schaefer will be taped from the stage for later broadcast on New Sounds.

Tristan Perich
is a New York-based composer and artist, who works with simple forms and structures, inspired by the aesthetics of math and physics. His über-low-tech 1-Bit Music (Cantaloupe Music, 2007) probes the foundations of digital sound. Recent electroacoustic compositions for ensemble and 1-bit sound integrate the physical with the electronic.

Erdem Helvacioğlu
is an electroacoustic composer from Turkey. He has received numerous electronic music awards and his album “A Walk Through the Bazaar” (out on Locustmusic) was called “outstanding” by Wired Magazine. Helvacioğlu’s music has been performed across the world at various music festivals and exhibitions. He is currently working on his PHD in electroacoustic composition at Istanbul Technical University.


Ken Thomson
is a Brooklyn-based clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer, who plays saxophone and writes for the NY-based punk/jazz band Gutbucket, with whom he has toured internationally and released 3 CDs on Cantaloupe Music. As a composer, in 2007 he finished a new 22-minute original soundtrack for Gutbucket to accompany the film "Night Mail" which was called "a masterful re-imagining of an old classic" by Indiewire.com. His new work, "Wait Your Turn," a commission from the American Composers Orchestra, debuted October 19 at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. He is a founding board member of Anti-Social Music and regularly performs with So Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, the World/Inferno Friendship Society, No Net Trio, Bang on a Can and others.

Iva Bittova
was born in 1958 in Bruntal in northern Moravia in what was then Czechoslovakia – and nowadays the Czech Republic. Both of her parents were musicians. Iva attended drama pre-school, specializing in violin and ballet. In due course she gained admittance to the Music Conservatory in Brno. She graduated in drama and music. During her studies, Iva took part-time engagements as an actress and musician in Brno’s Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose On A String Theater). She cites these engagements as some of the most formative and influential of her life. Around this time she also worked as an actress in radio, TV and movie productions. Later on, while working full time in theater, she re-kindled her interest in playing violin, an instrument she had set aside in her younger years. After her father’s early death, she decided to follow in his professional footsteps as an instrumentalist and by composing her own music. In 1982, Iva started studying with Professor Rudolf Stastny, the primarius (first violin) of the Moravian String Quartet. In the intervening years the violin has become her life’s passion and the most inspiring musical instrument in her professional life. Iva firmly believes that, as playing the violin places extreme demands on musicians, the composer’s work depends utterly on commitment and diligence.

Bang on a Can All-Stars
The Bang on a Can All-Stars have gained an international reputation for extreme virtuosity and an utterly unique sound, powered by their unusual combination of clarinet, electric guitar, cello, bass, keyboards, and percussion. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, the six-member ensemble is constantly exploring new and innovative ways to present music. Composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe started Bang on a Can in 1987 in New York City as a way to present concerts of music they loved; the enterprise has since grown into one of the most vital, enduring, and beloved forces in America’s new music scene. Dedicated to presenting the work of composers across a wide spectrum, Bang on a Can has created a home for musical inventors, misfits, and pioneers. The organization is now comprised of its resident ensemble the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who tour to major festivals and concert venues around the world; The People’s Commissioning Fund, a commissioning program that creates unprecedented opportunities for emerging composers; the annual mammoth Bang on a Can Marathon concert in New York; touring productions such as the staged oratorio Lost Objects and the OBIE winning opera The Carbon Copy Building based on the work of comic book artist Ben Katchor; Cantaloupe Music, the record label formed by Bang on a Can in 2001 (domestic distribution by harmonia mundi USA); the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA; and more…

Additional Resources:
» Bang on a Can's website
» Tristan Perich
» Tristan Perich’s MySpace
» Erdem Helvacioğlu
» Erdem Helvacioğlu’s Myspace
» Ken Thomson
» Anti-Social Music
» Gutbucket
» Iva Bittova
» More about the Bang of a Can People's Commissioning Fund
» New Sounds Live 2007-2008 Concert Season
» Merkin Hall