Bienen School to Present Midwest Premiere of ‘Lost Objects’

EVANSTON, Ill. --- The Midwest premiere of “Lost Objects” -- a new collaborative work by three genre-defying Bang on a Can composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe and writer Deborah Artman  -- will be presented publically in early and late May by Northwestern University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music.

Composed for voices, electric guitar, baroque orchestra and keyboards, the new piece has been described as a musical exploration of the meaning of memory.

Conducted by faculty member Donald Nally, director of the Bienen School’s choral organizations,  “Lost Objects” will be performed twice by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and Contemporary Music Ensemble. Both performances are free and open to the general public. 

• The first performance will take place indoors at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 1 at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

• An additional performance at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 24 will be held outdoors Memorial Day weekend in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, at 201 E. Randolph St., in downtown Chicago.

“LOST OBJECTS”

“Lost Objects” is the second major collaborative performance project by genre-defying composers Gordon, Lang and Wolfe and writer Artman. Artman described the piece as “a prayer hall, a hymn, but also an invention; in the tenuous and hurried climate of the times we live in now, ‘Lost Objects’ asks us to pause and consider the grace bestowed upon each thing, person, animal and idea, the ordinary and the not-so-ordinary lost objects of our shared and vanishing culture.”

BANG ON A CAN

Since its beginning in 1987, Bang on a Can has been dedicated to making new music and an international community for musical innovation. During the past 28 years, Bang on a Can has grown from a one-day New York-based marathon concert to a multi-faceted performing arts organization with a broad range of year-round international activities. For more information, visit bangonacan.org/about_us.

DEBORAH ARTMAN

Writer and editor Deborah Artman also is a librettist who has written the texts for an opera, two oratorios, a choral work and a musical theater piece. She is currently working on a solo percussion piece based on a Knut Hamsun novel. For more on Artman, visit www.deborahartman.com/. 

ARTS CIRCLE DRIVE

Northwestern’s Arts Circle Drive has reopened for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The road, drive-up handicap access to Arts Circle Drive venues, the pedestrian path at the lakefront and all sidewalks are now open for public use. New improvements to the South Beach Garage have also eliminated the need to use the stairways since both levels of the two-story parking structure are now accessible to persons with disabilities for easy access to Bienen School of Music venues. Additional parking is also available in the new Segal Visitors Center at 1841 Sheridan Road.

For more information, call the Bienen School of Music Concert Management Office at 847- 491-5441 or visit www.pickstaiger.org.