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David Lang is one of the most highly-esteemed and performed American composers writing today. His works have been performed around the world in most of the great concert halls.
Lang’s simple song #3, written as part of his score for Paolo Sorrentino’s acclaimed film YOUTH, received many awards nominations in 2016, including the Academy Award and Golden Globe.
His the little match girl passion won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in music. Based on a fable by Hans Christian Andersen and Lang’s own rewriting of the libretto to Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, the recording of the piece was awarded a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Lang has also been the recipient of the Rome Prize, Le Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and Musical America’s 2013 Composer of the Year.
Lang’s tenure as 2013-14 Debs Chair Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall saw his critically-acclaimed festival, collected stories, showcase different modes of storytelling in music. This season Lang sees the premiere of his chamber opera Anatomy Theatre at LA Opera, the 4th annual performance of the little match girl passion to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the UK premieres of the national anthems with the London Symphony and mystery sonatas at Wigmore Hall, as well as residencies at the Strings of Autumn Festival in Prague, the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and Baldwin-Wallace College.
Lang’s music is used regularly for ballet and modern dance around the world by such choreographers as Twyla Tharp, Susan Marshall, Edouard Lock, and Benjamin Millepied, who choreographed a new piece by Lang for the LA Dance Project at BAM in 2014. Lang’s film work includes the score for Jonathan Parker’s (Untitled), the music for the award-winning documentary The Woodmans, and the string arrangements for Requiem for a Dream, performed by the Kronos Quartet. His music is also on the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning La Grande Bellezza and the director’s upcoming film, Youth. In addition to his work as a composer is Professor of Composition at the Yale School of Music.
Lang is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can. His music is published by Red Poppy Music (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc.
Composer Brooks Frederickson writes patient music that is grounded in long lines of slowly evolving textures with understated rhythmic drive. As an active participant in Brooklyn’s vibrant contemporary music scene, he has worked with leading new music ensembles Sō Percussion, JACK Quartet, Bearthoven, Ensemble mise-en and with performers such as Vicky Chow, Nathan Schram, and Grace Fong. His music has been present as part of the Bang On A Can Marathon (2014), and the Contagious Sounds and Columbus // New York Exchange series. Interested in the interaction of movement and sound, he has also collaborated with the Spark Movement Collective and choreographer Annette Herwander.
Upcoming recording projects include a his “steroidally hard-driving, rock-influenced” (NY Times) piece Undertoad on Cantaloupe Records coming out in Spring 2017, as well as his first solo album Small Works that will be released in fall of the same year.
As an advocate for education and community, Brooks is on the faculty at the Special Music School where he teaches both theory and composition. In addition, he facilitates the annual Composer-Performer Speed Dating session at the New Music Gathering.