The Bang Group / MATA Mavens
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 W 37th Street, New York, NY

Transformation is the keynote of this year’s opening concert, a provocative encounter between instrumental performance and movement. The Bang Group executes Steve Reich’s Clapping Music with tap shoes, and reimagines Feldman's For John Cage – scored for piano and violin – as a tap dance. At the heart of the program are intriguing new solo and duo scores for violin, flute, voice, and electronics by Yifan Guo, Liann J Kang, Anselm McDonnell, Kaleena Miller, Sami Seif, and Zihan Wu, performed by MATA Mavens. While diverse in style, many of their works display a striking engagement with language. Bang choreographer David Parker interprets Pauline Kim Harris’s Sparkle Too with 10 pointe and eight tap shoes, and caps the evening with his witty Schlemiezel, a duo for dancers in Velcro-covered suits.