The National’s Bryce Dessner Curates Barbican Music Marathon

Bryce Dessner of the National has curated multimedia programming for this year’s Barbican music marathon, which takes place at Milton Court Concert Hall in London from May 9 to May 10, 2015. Events will take place across Barbican Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall, and St. Giles.

The programming for “Mountains and Waves: Bryce Dessner and New American Music” consists of 20th Century American classics and new works presented in tandem, including new orchestral work by Bryce Dessner and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry; a multimedia song cycle inspired by North Carolina’s Black Mountain College featuring music from Bryce Dessner, Richard Reed Parry, Caroline Shaw, Tim Hecker, and others; a cinematic portrait of the classic American Rodeo, Round-Up, as conceived by Sufjan Stevens, and much more.

Check out more details here.

May 9:

• 2 PM – Session One: Music by Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner performed by Yarn/Wire and Eight Blackbird
• 5PM – Session Two: James McVinnie performs work by Nico Muhly and Philip Glass
• 7:30 PM – Session Three: Black Mountain Songs: Multimedia song cycle performed by Brooklyn Youth Chorus alongside an ensemble including Bryce Dessner, Richard Reed Parry, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, and Ning Yu.

May 10:

• 2 PM – Session Four: So Percussion and Tim Hecker
• 5PM – Session Five: Caroline Shaw leads performance of her song cycle for string quartet By And By, featuring tradition American folk songs and more
• 7:30 PM – Session Six: Britten Sinfonia conducted by Clark Rundell, world premiere of Richard Reed Parry and Bryce Dessner’s new collaborative work Wave Movements for string and orchestra, which takes inspiration for wave cycles of the world’s oceans.

The second part of  the evening features Steve Reich’s Drumming, performed by So Percussion.

Watch the trailer for Sufjan Stevens’ Round-Up:

Comments are closed.