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Press Releases
David Lang's Pulitzer Prize-winning 'the little match girl passion'
April 6, 2010
Performances: May 6, 2010 - St. Mary's Catholic Church, Fredericksburg, TX
May 7, 8, and 9, 2010 - St. Martin's Lutheran Church, Austin, TX
New York, NY - Of "the little match girl passion" - commissioned by Carnegie Hall and awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music - critic Tim Page wrote, “I don't think I've ever been so moved by a new, and largely unheralded, composition as I was by David Lang's "little match girl passion," which is unlike any music I know.” The piece, along with others by J.S. Bach, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and Giacomo Carissimi, will be featured in an upcoming four-part concert series by five time Grammy-nominated choral ensemble Conspirare.
"What drew me to The Little Match Girl," writes Lang, "is that the strength of the story lies not in its plot but in the fact that all its parts – the horror and the beauty – are constantly suffused with their opposites. The girl’s bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories, her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There is a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope." He continues, "The Passion format – the telling of a story while simultaneously commenting upon it – has the effect of placing us in the middle of the action, and it gives the narrative a powerful inevitability." Called a "deeply moving portrait" by The New York Times, the piece has received great and widespread critical acclaim. The recording of the little match girl passion by Ars Nova Copenhagen & Theatre Of Voices received a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.
Prolific, enthusiastic and complicated, David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is deeply versed in the classical tradition while simultaneously determined to make music that resists categorization, constantly working with new forms. In the recent words of The New Yorker, "With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for "the little match girl passion" (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master."
Many of Lang’s pieces resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. His catalogue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and funky. Gaining popularity as a film composer as well, Lang recently completed the score for C. Scott Willis' documentary feature The Woodmans, which premieres at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival in the World Documentary Feature Competition. Much of Lang’s work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity in music—even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play and require incredible concentration by the musicians and audiences alike.
Conspirare was founded in 1991 as the New Texas Festival, which presented a summer classical music festival in Austin, Texas. Since then, the organization has grown rapidly to become an internationally recognized, professional choral organization that combines outstanding vocal artistry with innovative programming. Led by founder and artistic director Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare is comprised of two adult performing ensembles and an educational program. Conspirare has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and continues to receive rave reviews and national acclaim. In 2005 the organization received Chorus America’s prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence. As one of the choral organizations to receive a grant from the NEA for its American Masterpieces initiative, Conspirare presented “Crossing the Divide: Exploring Influence and Finding Our Voice” in January 2007. The four-day festival featured a distinguished gathering of composers and conductors, performances of three world premieres, and a gala closing concert with a mass choir of 600 singers. The Conspirare ensembles’ 2009-2010 season consists of 25 performances of eight different programs, in Austin, Wimberley, Fredericksburg, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Victoria. Conspirare's latest recording, A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert, on the Harmonia Mundi label, received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album.
# # #
To request an interview with David Lang or to arrange press tickets, please contact:
Amanda Ameer
First Chair Promotion
e amanda@firstchairpromo.com
ph 212.368.5949
Performances: May 6, 2010 - St. Mary's Catholic Church, Fredericksburg, TX
May 7, 8, and 9, 2010 - St. Martin's Lutheran Church, Austin, TX
New York, NY - Of "the little match girl passion" - commissioned by Carnegie Hall and awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music - critic Tim Page wrote, “I don't think I've ever been so moved by a new, and largely unheralded, composition as I was by David Lang's "little match girl passion," which is unlike any music I know.” The piece, along with others by J.S. Bach, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and Giacomo Carissimi, will be featured in an upcoming four-part concert series by five time Grammy-nominated choral ensemble Conspirare.
"What drew me to The Little Match Girl," writes Lang, "is that the strength of the story lies not in its plot but in the fact that all its parts – the horror and the beauty – are constantly suffused with their opposites. The girl’s bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories, her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There is a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope." He continues, "The Passion format – the telling of a story while simultaneously commenting upon it – has the effect of placing us in the middle of the action, and it gives the narrative a powerful inevitability." Called a "deeply moving portrait" by The New York Times, the piece has received great and widespread critical acclaim. The recording of the little match girl passion by Ars Nova Copenhagen & Theatre Of Voices received a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.
Prolific, enthusiastic and complicated, David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is deeply versed in the classical tradition while simultaneously determined to make music that resists categorization, constantly working with new forms. In the recent words of The New Yorker, "With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for "the little match girl passion" (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master."
Many of Lang’s pieces resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. His catalogue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and funky. Gaining popularity as a film composer as well, Lang recently completed the score for C. Scott Willis' documentary feature The Woodmans, which premieres at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival in the World Documentary Feature Competition. Much of Lang’s work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity in music—even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play and require incredible concentration by the musicians and audiences alike.
Conspirare was founded in 1991 as the New Texas Festival, which presented a summer classical music festival in Austin, Texas. Since then, the organization has grown rapidly to become an internationally recognized, professional choral organization that combines outstanding vocal artistry with innovative programming. Led by founder and artistic director Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare is comprised of two adult performing ensembles and an educational program. Conspirare has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and continues to receive rave reviews and national acclaim. In 2005 the organization received Chorus America’s prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence. As one of the choral organizations to receive a grant from the NEA for its American Masterpieces initiative, Conspirare presented “Crossing the Divide: Exploring Influence and Finding Our Voice” in January 2007. The four-day festival featured a distinguished gathering of composers and conductors, performances of three world premieres, and a gala closing concert with a mass choir of 600 singers. The Conspirare ensembles’ 2009-2010 season consists of 25 performances of eight different programs, in Austin, Wimberley, Fredericksburg, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Victoria. Conspirare's latest recording, A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert, on the Harmonia Mundi label, received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album.
# # #
To request an interview with David Lang or to arrange press tickets, please contact:
Amanda Ameer
First Chair Promotion
e amanda@firstchairpromo.com
ph 212.368.5949
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