Show Finder

Three decades ago, composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe noticed something missing in the universe of music: a zone between rock, jazz, classical, and folk where new forms of musical expression could find new audiences and new players. So they invented a new world of music, and called it Bang on a Can.

When Bang on a Can was searching for a place to roll out their own summer festival, they wanted to draw connections between groundbreaking music and groundbreaking art; they knew their listeners were perhaps more likely to emerge from Chelsea art galleries than from a conventional symphony hall, and would perhaps be more at home at a rock music festival than a traditional opera house.

For most of the month of July, for 17 years now, Bang on a Can has been expanding their world of music on the MASS MoCA campus—presenting dozens of concerts in our courtyards and galleries, and on our stages. Sometimes elaborately staged, sometimes raw and vividly improvisational, the music is always powerful and fresh (and frequently impossible to describe).

Festival Highlights:

Friday, July 13, 4:30pm
African Drumming

Wednesday, July 18, 4:30pm
Found Sound Nation

Saturday, July 21, 8pm
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields

Saturday, July 28, 4-10pm
Bang on a Can Marathon
with Steve Reich