As a young composer just out of the University of Southern California, Matt McBane attended Bang on a Can's first Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA. The innovative new-music collaborative's performances and classes at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art literally changed his life and affirmed his most eclectic musical impulses.
'That whole organization and the community around Bang on a Can has been a big inspiration for me,' said McBane, founder and director of the Carlsbad Music Festival. 'Their ideas about festivals and how organizations can create community and build an audience around interesting music have been really influential in shaping this festival.'
11th annual Carlsbad Music Festival
When: Friday, Sept. 19-Sunday, Sept. 21
Where: Locations throughout the Village of Carlsbad, including the Carlsbad Village Theater and Magee Park
Admission: $95 for three-day festival passes; $15 and $20 single tickets; free Village Music Walk Saturday 3 to 10:30 p.m.; free music in Magee Park next Sunday 1 to 5:30 p.m.
Online:carlsbadmusicfestival.org
McBane is a true believer in the Bang on a Can philosophy: New classical music doesn't have to be intimidating or dull - it doesn't even have to be classical music - something Bang on a Can co-founder David Lang realized long before winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2008, the same year he joined the composition faculty at Yale.
'I just wanted to do music; I didn't know that if I liked one kind of music I wasn't supposed to like some other kind of music,' Lang said. 'I really didn't think of it the way a lot of music is taught, which is to say, one kind of music is better than some other kind of music. I never got that message.'
Neither did McBane, who is featuring Lang's music in next weekend's 11th annual Carlsbad Music Festival. The main-stage concerts will include three U.S. premieres by the increasingly influential composer: 'darker,' performed by Renga and conducted by Steven Schick (a former Bang on a Can percussionist); 'ark luggage,' with soprano Susan Narucki and Art of Élan; and 'when we were children,' with Sacra/Profana.
The festival also encompasses the Carlsbad-based rock band Trouble in the Wind, the Kuhn/Motl/Hubbard Trio, Opus Orange, Paper Days, G Burns Jug Band and a host of other ensembles, all under the umbrella of the festival's mantra: adventurous music by the beach.
'I've tried to structure the whole festival so there's space for all kinds of different things,' McBane said. 'I want to find ways to have an event that's really broad and eclectic, but also has a certain character.'
Attitude problems
To say the festival's character is defined by new music would be stating the obvious. Virtually the entire, ever-expanding event is built around contemporary music even as some mainstream San Diego classical organizations continue to struggle with new music at the box office.
'The problem is not the music,' said Lang, who will be in Carlsbad for the festival. 'Contemporary music gets a really bad rap because there's so many bad experiences people have had with it. And I think all of those experiences are about the world surrounding that music rather than what we are listening to and how it's made.'
Entities 0 Name: Carlsbad Count: 5 1 Name: McBane Count: 4 2 Name: Lang Count: 3 3 Name: Carlsbad Music Festival Count: 3 4 Name: Matt McBane Count: 2 5 Name: Renga Count: 1 6 Name: Burns Jug Band Count: 1 7 Name: U.S. Count: 1 8 Name: San Diego Count: 1 9 Name: Magee Park Count: 1 10 Name: Bill Wechter Count: 1 11 Name: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Count: 1 12 Name: David Lang Count: 1 13 Name: Yale Count: 1 14 Name: Susan Narucki Count: 1 15 Name: Opus Orange Count: 1 16 Name: Steven Schick Count: 1 17 Name: University of Southern California Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/WYwbCA Title: Festival Travel Site Festicket Raises $2.7M Series A Description: Festicket, the UK startup that offers a travel booking and discovery site for festival goers, has closed a $2.7 million Series A round. The new funding, which adds to a $680,000 seed round raised in March 2013, is being led by European VCs, Wellington Partners and PROfounders Capital.
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