Celebrating the natural wonders of earth and the perseverance of miners in Pennsylvania coal country, this program reflects both the beauty and tragedy of humanity’s relationship with our planet. Natural History is a collaboration between composer Michael Gordon and the Steiger Butte Singers. Written and commissioned to mark the centennial of the National Park System, the piece poses the question: If Crater Lake National Park were a symphony, what would it sound like? The result is a surround-sound celebration of nature and the park’s spiritual connection to the surrounding community. In contrast, Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields is a haunting and powerful oratorio that captures not only the sadness of lives lost in the anthracite coal fields at the turn of the 20th century, but a way of daily life now also lost. The Bang on a Can All-Stars lend their ferocity to this profound work alongside the May Festival Chorus.

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Voices of the Earth

Cincinnati Music Hall

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bay Area’s own Kronos Quartet—the groundbreaking ensemble that helped reinvent the string quartet for our global, connected, contemporary world through cross-cultural and cross-genre collaborations, ambitious commissioning projects, and enduring partnerships with living composers. The concert features two world premieres commissioned for the quartet’s anniversary from Michael Gordon and Peni Candra Rini. In his newest collaboration with Kronos, Gordon takes inspiration from Haydn’s scherzos to create a suite of lighthearted miniatures. Indonesian composer Candra Rini was among the artists selected to participate in Kronos’ visionary Fifty for the Future initiative, which commissioned 50 international composers to create scores made available as a resource at no cost for the next generation of string quartet players. Her new work includes shadow puppets, original artwork, and field recordings inspired by musical environments and cultures across the Indonesian archipelago. “No one is ever going to say that Kronos Quartet is satisfied with the string quartet status quo” (The New York Times).

Kronos Quartet

University of California, Berkeley

SLSO string players summon intense color and bold abstraction. Quartets take us on kaleidoscopic journeys through Sky Macklay’s angular reimagination of the familiar cadence and Molly Joyce’s reflection on perfection. Michael Gordon and Leilehua Lanzilotti revel in the emotive beauty of solo instruments. A lone marimba breaks up the string party in Andy Akiho’s virtuosic and percussive banger.

Live at the Pulitzer: Line and Light

Pulitzer Arts Foundation

Embodying “undivided devotion to the musical material,” the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices is a go-to collaborator for many of today’s most visionary composers. In Zankel Hall alone, they have premiered new works by such artists as Arvo Pärt, David Lang, and Ingram Marshall. In this performance—in the intimate, in-the-round Zankel Hall Center Stage configuration—they sing a world premiere by the category-defying Julia Wolfe, a US premiere by John Luther Adams that takes listeners on a journey through the geological layers of the Grand Canyon, and a recent work by Michael Gordon that combines playfully direct lyrics with sumptuously scored singing.

Michael Gordon

Events

Upcoming events

Feb 11, 2025

Theatre of Voices · Carnegie Hall

Apr 16, 2025

New Music Ensemble · Butler School of Music

Past events

May 23, 2024

Voices of the Earth · The May Festival

Mar 2, 2024

Kronos Quartet · Cal Performances

About

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