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Bang on a Can's Asphalt Orchestra performing

Bang on a Can's Asphalt Orchestra. Photo by Stephanie Berger

Bang on a Can Marathon

Saturday, May 6, 2017

2–10 pm

Throughout the Museum

The 30th anniversary edition of the Bang on a Can Marathon brings a night of unique, boundary-pushing performances to the Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturdays. The 2017 Marathon features eight hours of rare performances by some of the most innovative musicians of our time, side-by-side with some of today’s most pioneering young artists.

Suggested admission is $16 before 5 pm; free after 5 pm, courtesy of Target First Saturdays.

2 pm Bang on a Can All-Stars kick off the show, performing Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, inspired by the folk ballad.

3:30 pm Experience hypnotic Moroccan grooves by New York City’s very own Innova Gnawa.

4 pm Catch a rare solo set by the Kanye West–collaborating, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw.

The Young People's Chorus of NYC honors the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria with Joan La Barbara’s A Murmuration for Chibok.

Oliver Lake Crash Bang Trio with Bill McClellan and Reggie Nicholson performs works by renowned artist Oliver Lake.

5 pm The duo Rabbit Rabbit performs emotional acoustic works by composers Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi.

5–6 pm Bang on a Can’s extreme mobile marching band, Asphalt Orchestra, performs songs by The Pixies, tUnE-yArDs, and more.

6 pm Indie-guitarist Kaki King presents her exceptional percussive and jazzy melodies.

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble performs the New York premiere of No Anthem, by Michael Gordon.

7 pm New York’s legendary Meredith Monk leads the women of her acclaimed vocal ensemble in a set of shimmering a cappella pieces from her work-in-progress Cellular Songs.

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble performs Louis Andriessen’s hard-driving masterpiece De Staat, a commentary on music’s relationship to politics.

7:30–8:30 pm Laraaji transforms our entryway with his world of ambient music.

8 pm Amir ElSaffar’s all-star Two Rivers Ensemble blends the maqam music of Iraq with contemporary jazz. 

Celebrated contemporary composer and Bang on a Can co-founder David Lang presents the Brooklyn premiere of just (after song of songs).

9 pm Composer Kendall Williams directs Brooklyn’s steel pan ensemble Pan in Motion.

Asphalt Orchestra performs Ivo’s Ruchenitsa (arranged by Peter Hess) by Ivo Papasov.

Women's Raga Massive, the all-female arm of Hindustani Brooklyn Raga Massive, headlines a special tribute to A Year of Yes.