David Lang and Bill Morrison have collaborated on numerous projects over the years, including live ensemble performances with film projections Carbon Copy Building (The Kitchen, 2000), The New Yorkers (BAM Next Wave, 2003), Shelter (BAM Next Wave, 2005), and Anatomy Theater (LA Opera, 2016), as well as standalone films how to pray (2006), Back to the Soil (2014), let me come in (2021), The Village Detective: a song cycle (2021). darker is their tenth collaboration, spanning 24 years.

// This program is generously supported by Rachel and Daniel Widawsky.

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From David:

darker is in many ways more like an object than a piece of music. An extreme exploration of emotional restraint, it is a long, slow passing from something mostly even and pleasant to something a little less pleasant. My piece, like life, expends a lot of effort to go a very short distance, from beautiful to a little less beautiful, from a little light to something a little darker.

darker is both highly detailed and relentlessly restrained, and it requires an almost superhuman focus in order to keep it moving, inexorably, towards its end. I am especially grateful to Brad Lubman, Lauren Radnofsky, and everyone in Ensemble Signal. My piece couldn't possibly work without their commitment, dedication and musicality.

From Bill:

With darker, I took inspiration from David’s minimal score to create a film that, like the music, can exist both before and under the viewer’s eyelids. A slowly, lilting depiction of the Sublime, where actors, dancers, and acrobats reappear and then disappear back into a bubbling morass of time.

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darker

ensemble signal

david lang, music

bill morrison, film

brad lubman, conductor

About Bill Morrison

Bill Morrison has been called “the poet laureate of lost films” (New York Times, 9/21/2021), as he often makes films that reframe long-forgotten moving images. He has premiered feature-length films at the New York, Sundance, Telluride and Venice film festivals. He is best known for his found footage opus Decasia, 2002, for the documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time, 2016, and for his recent short film Incident, 2023. As a projection designer, Morrison has produced films to accompany theatrical and music performance for over 30 different productions since 1990. His work in live performance has been recognized with two Obies and a Bessie Award for theatrical design. Recent projection design credits include Double Bill, a collaboration with guitarist / composer Bill Frisell at Roulette, Brooklyn in June 2024; Angel Island, by Huang Ruo, produced by Beth Morrison Projects for Next Wave Festival / Prototype Festival in January 2024; and Antony and Cleopatra, by John Adams, at Barcelona Liceu in October 2023 and at San Francisco Opera, September 2022 (world premiere). Bill has collaborated numerous times with David Lang, including on The Village Detective: a song cycle (2021), let me come in (2021), Anatomy Theater (2015), Back to the Soil (2014), how to pray (2006), and Shelter (2005).

About David Lang

David Lang is one of America's most highly esteemed and performed composers. Lang’s score for Paolo Sorrentino’s film Youth received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, among others. the little match girl passion, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices, was lauded by The Guardian as “one of the top 25 works of classical music written in the 21st Century.” It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 and the recording received a Grammy Award in 2010. His opera prisoner of the state (with libretto by Lang) was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam’s De Doelen, London’s Barbican Centre, Barcelona’s l’Auditori, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Bruges’s Concertgebouw, and Malmö Opera, and premiered June 2019 in New York, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Lang is a Professor of Music Composition at the Yale School of Music. He is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can.

About Ensemble Signal

Ensemble Signal is a NY-based ensemble dedicated to offering the broadest possible audience access to a diverse range of contemporary works through performance, commissioning, recording, and education. Signal was founded by Co-Artistic/Executive Director Lauren Radnofsky and Co-Artistic Director/Conductor Brad Lubman. Since its debut at the Bang on a Can Marathon in 2008, Signal has performed over 350 concerts, premiered numerous works, and co-produced over ten recordings. Signal has appeared at Lincoln Center Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, BIG EARS Festival, Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center American Songbook, The Library of Congress, Washington Performing Arts, Cal Performances, Tanglewood Music Festival of Contemporary Music, Ojai Music Festival, the Guggenheim Museum (NY), NPR Tiny Desk Concerts and the Bang on a Can Marathon. They’ve regularly worked directly with nearly all the composers they perform in order to offer the most authentic interpretations, a list that includes Hans Abrahamsen, Unsuk Chin, Luca Francesconi, Michael Gordon, Georg Friedrich Haas, Oliver Knussen, Helmut Lachenmann, David Lang, George Lewis, Hilda Paredes, Augusta Read Thomas, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho and Julia Wolfe. Their recording of Reich's Music for 18 Musicians released in May 2015 on harmonia mundi received a Diapason d'or and appeared on the Billboard Classical Crossover Charts. Recent highlights include the world premiere and 130 performances of Reich’s Reich/Richter for large ensemble, with artwork and film by Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz for the inaugural season of New York’s The Shed, and the US premieres of Reich’s Runner at venues across the US.

About Brad Lubman

Brad Lubman, American conductor and composer, has gained widespread recognition for his versatility, commanding technique and insightful interpretations over the course of more than two decades. A frequent guest conductor, Lubman has led many of the world’s most distinguished orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Danish National Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, DSO Berlin, SWR Sinfonieorchester, WDR Symphony Cologne, Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Brussels Philharmonic and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. In addition, he has worked with some of the most important European and American ensembles for contemporary music, including Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, and Steve Reich and Musicians. He has conducted at new-music festivals across Europe, including those in Lucerne, Salzburg, Berlin, Huddersfield, Paris, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Oslo. Lubman was the recipient of the 2019 Ditson Conductor’s award, in recognition of his distinguished record of performing and championing contemporary American music. Lubman is founding Co-Artistic Director and Conductor of the NY-based Ensemble Signal. Since its debut in 2008, the Ensemble has performed over 350 concerts and co-produced over ten recordings. Their recording of Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians on harmonia mundi was awarded a Diapason d’or in June 2015 and appeared on the Billboard Classical crossover charts. Brad Lubman is on faculty at the Eastman School of Music and the Bang on a Can Summer Institute.