Julia Wolfe & Bang on a Can All-Stars: Anthracite Fields

Julia Wolfe is a co-founder and co-artistic director of Bang on a Can, a University Professor at NYU Steinhardt, a 2016 MacArthur Fellow, and the winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Anthracite Fields. Her music draws on folk, classical, and rock, distinguished by an intense physicality and relentless drive. Bang on a Can All-Stars are the collective’s amplified six-piece ensemble and longtime champions of adventurous new music. Anthracite Fields premiered in Philadelphia with the Mendelssohn Club in 2014 and received its New York premiere that May as part of the NY Phil Biennial.

Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the All-Stars have shattered the definition of what concert music is today.

Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Meredith Monk, George Lewis, Louis Andriessen, Terry Riley and dozens more.  The group’s celebrated projects include their landmark recordings of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley’s In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Don Byron, Iva Bittová, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett and others. The All-Stars were awarded Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year and have been heralded as “the country’s most important vehicle for contemporary music” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Current and recent project highlights include their own new arrangements of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s landmark album 1996; David Lang’s before and after nature premiered with the LA Master Chorale; Julia Wolfe’s Flower Power for Bang on a Can All-Stars and orchestra, premiered with the LA Philharmonic; a new live arrangement of Terry Riley’s iconic and inspirational A Rainbow in Curved Air, celebrating the legendary composer’s 90th Birthday year (2025);  a recording of legendary composer/performer Meredith Monk’s MEMORY GAME; Can Dance, a multimedia concert of collaborations between composers, filmmakers and choreographers; performances of the band’s much beloved arrangement of Brian Eno’s classic Music for Airports; Road Trip, an immersive and visually stunning concert collaboratively-composed by Bang’s founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe; In C, a dance collaboration with Sasha Waltz & Guests based on Terry Riley’s minimalist classic;  performances and recordings of Wolfe’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Anthracite Fields and groundbreaking Steel Hammer;  a collaboration featuring Chinese superstar singer Gong Linna called Cloud River Mountain;  and much more.

With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group’s distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.