For immediate release: 18 March 2013
A Scream and an Outrage
A marathon weekend of new music curated by Nico Muhly
Barbican, London UK
Friday 10 – Sunday 12 May 2013
Tickets: £12.50 – 30
Celebrated New York-based composer Nico Muhly curates the Barbican’s May
marathon weekend in 2013. Muhly’s aim for the weekend was to programme
“composers writing for their friends, and creating environments for great
performances” – and the result is a line-up featuring composers and performers
who move seamlessly between the musical genres from rock and electronic to
chamber and orchestral music. Their names are associated with acclaimed acts
including The National, Sigur Ros, Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear and Antony and the
Johnsons, as well as with some of the most influential composers of the 20th and
21st century such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams and Terry Riley.
Six concerts over the weekend of 10-12 May take place at the Barbican and LSO
St Luke’s under the headline A Scream and an Outrage. The programme features
the world premieres of Muhly’s choral work An Outrage performed by the BBC
singers, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang’s man made, a new
percussion concerto which contrasts natural with man made materials, performed
by the innovative percussionists of So Percussion together with the BBC
Symphony Orchestra.
Paola Prestini’s multimedia opera cantata Oceanic Verses gets its European
premiere in a reworked version for orchestra and choir, including projections of
filmed landscapes by filmmaker Ali Hossaini. Oceanic Verses explores the lives of
four characters caught in an ancient landscape continually transformed by waves
of immigration.
On 11 May, Britten Sinfonia conducted by André de Ridder performs an evening
of music which combines Daníel Bjarnason’s new Rothko-inspired piece Over
Light Earth and Bryce Dessner’s (The National) concerto for double electric guitar
with sets by Conor J O'Brien (Villagers) and Glen Hansard (The Frames, The Swell
Season). Both singers perform Muhly's arrangements of their songs from across
their careers, including music from the recent Villagers album {awayland} that
entered the UK Top 20 in January. The evening also features music for Heart and
Breath by Richard Reed Parry (of the Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre) performed
by the composer together with guests including Nico Muhly and violist Nadia
Sirota.
A session at LSO St Luke’s featuring Bang on a Can and Trio Mediaeval is
dedicated to folk melodies (including Muhly’s Three Songs), minimalism (including
Terry Riley’s Tread on the Trail), and the combination of the two (Julia Wolfe’s
Appalachian-inspired Steel Hammer). Another session at LSO St Luke’s with The
Sixteen and Harry Christophers showcases sacred choral music, ancient as well
as modern, by composers such as Thomas Tallis, Arvo Pärt, Charles Stanford,
William Byrd, James MacMillan, Gustav Holst and Nico Muhly.
Philip Glass’s long-awaited, complete twenty Etudes for Piano are performed
throughout Sunday, including performances by Glass and Muhly themselves. A
culmination of the etudes is reached in the final session that also includes David
Lang’s death speaks, a song-cycle inspired by Schubert’s Death and the Maiden,
performed by Nico Muhly, Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and violinist
Pekka Kuusisto, and music by Muhly’s labelmate and longtime collaborator
Valgeir Siggurdson.
The Calder Quartet performs a new string quartet by Joby Talbot, and Michael
Nyman’s String Quartet No 3. It also gives a preview to the weekend on 9 May in
the Barbican Art Gallery performing music including works by John Cage, as part
of the Barbican’s Dancing around Duchamp season. At the heart of the season is
the major exhibition The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage,
Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns.
Throughout the weekend, there will performances from emerging artists in East
London on the Barbican’s FreeStage and ClubStage.
Find out more here: www.barbican.org.uk/scream
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Barbican Box Office: 0845 120 7550
www.barbican.org.uk
Press Information
For any further information, images or to arrange interviews, please contact the
Barbican’s music media relations team:
Annikaisa Vainio-Miles, Media Relations Manager
t - +44 (0)20 7382 7090
e – avainio-miles@barbican.org.uk
Sabine Kindel, Senior Media Relations Officer
t - +44 (0)20 7382 6199
e – sabine.kindel@barbican.org.uk
Eleanor Chapman, Media Relations Officer
t - +44 (0)20 7382 6196
e – eleanor.chapman@barbican.org.uk
Rob Severyn-Kosinski, Media Relations Assistant
t - +44 (0)20 7382 6138
e – robert.severyn-kosinski@barbican.org.uk
About the Barbican
A world-class arts and learning organisation, the Barbican pushes the boundaries
of all major art forms including dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Its
creative learning programme further underpins everything it does. Over 1.5
million people pass through the Barbican’s doors annually, hundreds of artists
and performers are featured, and more than 300 staff work onsite. The
architecturally renowned centre opened in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall,
the Barbican Theatre, the Pit, Cinemas One, Two and Three, Barbican Art Gallery, a
second gallery The Curve, foyers and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, a
glasshouse conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants. The City of
London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre.
The Barbican is home to Resident Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra;
Associate Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra; Associate Ensembles the Academy
of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia, and Associate Producer Serious. Our Artistic
Associates include Boy Blue Entertainment, Cheek by Jowl and Michael Clark
Company. International Associates are Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of
Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhaus
Orchestra Leipzig and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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