Institute for Advanced Study Announces 2016–17 Edward T. Cone Concert Series

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study, has announced the performers for the 2016­–17 Edward T. Cone Concert Series. Titled “The Pattern Makers,” Lang’s first season as Artist-in-Residence will present a range of vibrant ensembles and soloists.

“As my first season as Artist-in-Residence, I wanted to curate an exciting series around the theme of patterns,” said Lang. “Each concert will focus on a particular piece, or set of pieces, that demonstrate how pattern making participates in the creation of large-scale musical forms. Some of these pieces will be among the most popular works, some will be odd, some will be things we read about in books, but almost never get to hear. What links them all together is that they each begin with a small thought that is repeated, ordered, arranged and transformed, eventually growing to fill a whole life.”

The season will open on Friday, September 30 and Saturday, October 1 featuring the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street conducted by Julian Wachner. The performance, which is supported by a grant from the PNC Foundation, will highlight Lang’s evening morning day and the rarely performed Messe de Nostre Dame of Guillaume de Machaut, the first complete mass composed by a single composer, along with other semi-religious music from the Burgundian Renaissance.

On November 18 and 19, acclaimed piano virtuoso David Jalbert will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Known for his warm, elegant style and wide-ranging repertoire, Jalbert has established himself among the elite of a new generation of classical musicians, and was recently named by the CBC among the fifteen best Canadian pianists of all time.

A concert of new and traditional Balinese music will be performed by Boston’s large percussion orchestra, Gamelan Galak Tika on February 10 and 11. An ensemble comprised of gongs, metallophones and hand drums, cymbals, vocals, bamboo flutes and spiked fiddles, Gamelan Galak Tika is approximately thirty members strong, drawing membership from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology students, staff and community.

The season will conclude on March 3 and 4 with a performance by So Percussion, the Edward T. Cone Ensemble-in-Residence at Princeton University. The concerts will feature a program by composer Steve Reich, in honor of his eightieth birthday.

All concerts in the series will take place at 8:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall at the Institute. Concert talks, providing discussions of the music in the program and related topics, will be held each Friday following the performance.

The concerts are free and open to the public, but tickets must be reserved online. Seating is limited. For further information about tickets and the Institute’s Artist-in-Residence program, visit www.ias.edu/air.

About Edward T. Cone

Noted composer, teacher, pianist and author Edward T. Cone, for whom the Institute’s concert series is named, earned his undergraduate and MFA degrees at Princeton University and was affiliated with its music department for more than 50 years. A Founding Friend of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study, he was a tireless supporter of the arts and humanities at the Institute and elsewhere.

About the Artist-in-Residence Program

The Artist-in-Residence program was established at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994 to create a musical presence within the Institute community and to have in residence a person whose work could be experienced and appreciated by scholars from all disciplines. Pianist Robert Taub was the first Artist-in-Residence from 1994 to 2001, followed by composer Jon Magnussen, who served as Artist-in-Residence from 2000 to 2007. Paul Moravec served as Artist-in-Residence from 2007 to 2008 and Artistic Consultant from 2008 to 2009. Derek Bermel, a composer, clarinetist, conductor and jazz and rock musician, served as Artist-in-Residence from 2009 to June 2013. Following Bermel, composer Sebastian Currier served as the Artist-in-Residence from 2013 to June 2016.

David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, became Artist-in-Residence in July 2016. His works have been performed worldwide by distinguished artists and ensembles, including the BBC Symphony, the International Contemporary Ensemble, eighth blackbird, Santa Fe Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Boston Symphony, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the Kronos Quartet. A recipient of the prestigious Grammy Award, Lang has received numerous honors, including Musical America’s Composer of the Year, Carnegie Hall’s 2013­–14 Debs Composer’s Chair, the Rome Prize, the BMW Music-Theater Prize (Munich), and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Lang's simple song #3, written as part of his score for Paolo Sorrentino's acclaimed film YOUTH, received many awards nominations in 2016, including the Academy Award and Golden Globe. Lang is a Professor of Music Composition at the Yale School of Music and is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music festival Bang on a Can.

About the Institute

The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a Faculty of some 30 permanent professors, and it ensures the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Thirty-three Nobel Laureates and 41 out of 56 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.