Bang on a Can All-Stars

Bang on a Can Allstars refers to an ensemble developed by the founders of Bang on a Can .

At the very beginning of Bang on a Can, founders Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julie 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. And they had to be great.

Michael, David and Julie quickly started assembling a core of such 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.

Like the Bang on a Can Festival, the All-Stars have a powerful mission – to give the most persuasive and exciting performances of the most genre-defying music in the world. They go about their mission in a few different ways – by performing and recording definitive versions of the groundbreaking music of our day, by working closely with a diverse assortment of musical masters from our and other cultures, and by commissioning actively new works from both the unknown and the famous, from all walks of musical life.

Together, the All-Stars have worked in unbelievably close collaborations with some of the most important musicians of our time, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Brian Eno, Ornette Coleman, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Don Byron, Burmese circle drum master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Iva Bittova, Nobukazu Takemura, Terry Riley, Glenn Branca, Cecil Taylor, DJ Spooky, and Louis Andriessen. The All-Stars have formed lasting relationships with many of these musicians, commissioning and performing their works, recording them, and touring them all over the world.