The Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can Present Bang on a Can: Repetition and Difference Featuring Violinist Todd Reynolds

Todd Reynolds.

Credit: Lynn Lane.

Release Date: June 17, 2015

The Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can Present Bang on a Can: Repetition and Difference Featuring Violinist Todd Reynolds

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July 9 Concert Tied to Exhibition Exploring Repetition and Seriality in Collection Works and Contemporary Art

New York, NY – Bang on a Can: Repetition and Difference, a concert featuring violinist Todd Reynolds, will take place at the Jewish Museum on Thursday, July 9 at 7:30pm. Tied to the Museum exhibition Repetition and Difference—exploring how subtle disruptions in form, color, or design can reveal intriguing information about a work’s creation and meaning—the performance will highlight difference and repetition in music. This program continues the Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can’s partnership to produce a series of dynamic musical performances at the Museum inspired by the Jewish Museum’s diverse slate of exhibitions.

A forerunner in the expansion of the violin beyond its classical and “wood-bound” tradition, Todd Reynolds electrifies in concert, weaving together composed and improvised segments, and making use of computer technology and digital loops to sculpt his sounds in real time, seamlessly integrating minimalist, pop, Jazz, Indian, African, Celtic and indigenous folk music into his own sonic blend. The violinist of choice for a generation of New York composers, particularly those who trace their influences to the minimalists of downtown New York, this program explores repetition and difference in music for violin and electronics by Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon and David Lang, expressivist/post-minimalist Ingram Marshall, and by Todd Reynolds himself.

About Repetition and Difference

Through over 350 historic objects from the Museum’s collection and recent works by contemporary artists, Repetition and Difference explores how subtle disruptions in form, color, or design can reveal intriguing information about a work’s creation and meaning. Large groups of seemingly identical objects, including silver coins struck in ancient Lebanon and 19th-century Iranian marriage contracts, are juxtaposed with recent works by artists including Abraham Cruzvillegas, N. Dash, and Hank Willis Thomas. Repetition and Difference is on view through August 16, 2015

The partnership between The Jewish Museum and Bang on a Can launched in June 2014 and is continuing for the 2015-2016 season.  The second season kicked off with a free, outdoor performance by DJ Spooky at the Museum Mile Festival on June 9 and continues with the July 9 concert by Todd Reynolds. Other concerts throughout the season will include The Power Of Pictures featuring Bang on a Can All-Stars bassist Robert Black with the Hartt Bass Band and Friends (November 5), and Unorthodox featuring the Mivos Quartet (February 4).

Tickets for the July 9 program are $18 general public; $15 students and senior citizens; and $12 for Jewish Museum members and Bang on a Can list members, and include exhibition admission prior to the performance. Further program and ticket information is available at TheJewishMuseum.org/calendar or by calling 212.423.3337. The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, Manhattan.

Support

Public Programming at the Jewish Museum is supported , in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.  This concert is made possible by a generous endowment from the William Petschek Family.

About Todd Reynolds

Todd Reynolds, violinist, composer, educator and technologist, is known as one of the founding fathers of the hybrid-musician movement and one of the most active and versatile proponents of what he calls “present music.” The violinist of choice for Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, and Bang on a Can, and the founder of the string quartet known as Ethel, his compositional and performance style is a hybrid of old and new technology, multi-disciplinary aesthetic and pan-genre composition and improvisation. Reynolds’ music has been called “a charming, multi-mood extravaganza, playful like Milhaud, but hard-edged like Hendrix” (Strings Magazine), and his countless premieres and performances of everything from classical music to jazz to rock and roll seem to redefine the concert hall and underground club as undeniably and unavoidably intertwined. Amazon rated his 2011 release, Outerborough, as “best of classical.”

About Bang on a Can

Bang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Founded by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, who curatored the first Marathon concert in 1987 and remain co-Artistic Directors to this day, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found. With adventurous programs, it commissions new composers; performs, presents, and records new work; develops new audiences; and educates the musicians of the future. “Bang on a Can plays “a central role in fostering a new kind of audience that doesn’t concern itself with boundaries. If music is made with originality and integrity, these listeners will come” (The New York Times). Current projects include the annual Bang on a Can Marathon; The People’s Commissioning Fund, a membership program to commission emerging composers; the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who tour to major festivals and concert venues around the world; the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a professional development program for young musicians; Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can’s extreme street band; and Found Sound Nation, a musical outreach program partnering with the U.S. State Department to create OneBeat, a program that bridges the gulf between young American musicians and young musicians from developing countries. For more information, visit www.bangonacan.org.

About the Jewish Museum

Located on Museum Mile at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, the Jewish Museum is one of the world's preeminent institutions devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary, offering intellectually engaging, educational, and provocative exhibitions and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary as the core of a museum collection. Today, the Museum maintains a collection of over 30,000 works of art, artifacts, and broadcast media reflecting global Jewish identity, and presents a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed temporary exhibitions.

 

The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City. Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to 4pm. Museum admission is $15.00 for adults, $12.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for visitors 18 and under and Jewish Museum members. Admission is Pay What You Wish on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm and free on Saturdays. For information on the Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3200 or visit the website at www.thejewishmuseum.org.

Press contacts

For the Jewish Museum:

Anne Scher, Molly Kurzius, or Alex Wittenberg

212.423.3271 or pressoffice@thejm.org

 

For Bang on a Can:

Christina Jensen PR – Christina Jensen or Katy Salomon

646.536.7864 or christina@christinajensenpr.com / katy@christinajensenpr.com