David Lang, Jeffrey Zeigler & Molly Barth

David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winner & Oscar-nominated composer

David Lang is one of the most highly-esteemed and performed American composers writing today. His works have been performed around the world in most of the great concert halls.

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.

His the little match girl passion won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in music. Based on a fable by Hans Christian Andersen and Lang’s own rewriting of the libretto to Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, the recording of the piece was awarded a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Lang has also been the recipient of the Rome Prize, Le Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and Musical America’s 2013 Composer of the Year.

Lang’s tenure as 2013-14 Debs Chair Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall saw his critically-acclaimed festival, collected stories, showcase different modes of storytelling in music. This season Lang sees the premiere of his chamber opera Anatomy Theatre at LA Opera, the 4th annual performance of the little match girl passion to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the UK premieres of the national anthems with the London Symphony and mystery sonatas at Wigmore Hall, as well as residencies at the Strings of Autumn Festival in Prague, the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and Baldwin-Wallace College.

Lang’s music is used regularly for ballet and modern dance around the world by such choreographers as Twyla Tharp, Susan Marshall, Edouard Lock, and Benjamin Millepied, who choreographed a new piece by Lang for the LA Dance Project at BAM in 2014. Lang’s film work includes the score for Jonathan Parker’s (Untitled), the music for the award-winning documentary The Woodmans, and the string arrangements for Requiem for a Dream, performed by the Kronos Quartet. His music is also on the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning La Grande Bellezza and the director’s upcoming film, Youth. In addition to his work as a composer is Professor of Composition at the Yale School of Music.

Lang is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can. His music is published by Red Poppy Music (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc.

Jeffrey Zeigler is one of the most versatile cellists of our time. Known for his independent streak, he has commissioned dozens of works, and is admired as a potent collaborator and unique improviser. Described as “fiery”, and a player who performs “with unforced simplicity and beauty of tone” by the New York Times, he has given many notable premiers including works by John Adams, Damon Albarn, Derek Charke, John Corigliano, Henryk Gorecki, John King, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and John Zorn to name a few. His collaborations include Andy Akiho, Laurie Anderson, Nora Chipaumire, Helga Davis, Philip Glass, Hauschka, Magos Herrera, Vijay Iyer, Glenn Kotche, David Krakauer, Hafez Modirzadeh, Kimmo Pohjonen, Gyan Riley, Netsayi and Black Pressure and Tom Waits.

Described as “ferociously talented” (The Oregonian), Grammy-Award winning flutist Molly Alicia Barth specializes in the music of today. In demand as a soloist, Molly has recently performed in Australia, Korea, and Mexico and has played solo recitals and led clinics at esteemed institutions including the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory and Northwestern University Bienen School of Music.

Contemporary chamber music is Molly’s primary musical interest, and she is currently involved with three ensembles. Formed by Molly Barth and guitarist Dieter Hennings, Duo Damiana is focused on broadening the cutting-edge body of repertoire for flute and guitar. As co-founder of the Beta Collide New Music Project, Molly has collaborated with individuals from a broad spectrum of disciplines such as dance, art, sound sculpture and theoretical physics. With Beta Collide, she has recorded two CDs and one DVD with Innova Records. Molly is the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Oregon, where she is a member of the Oregon Wind Quintet. The Oregon Wind Quintet, which regularly tours throughout the Pacific Northwest, performs a large body of contemporary music along with standard wind quintet repertoire.

As a founding member of the new music sextet eighth blackbird from 1996-2006, Molly won the 2007 “Best Chamber Music Performance” Grammy Award, recorded four CDs with Cedille Records, and was granted the 2000 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and first prize at the 1998 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Before assuming her teaching position at the University of Oregon, Molly taught at Willamette University and held residencies at the University of Chicago and at the University of Richmond. She is a graduate of the Oberlin College- Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and Northwestern University School of Music. Molly’s principal teachers include Michel Debost, Kathleen Chastain, Randolph Bowman, Bradley Garner, and Walfrid Kujala. In addition to frequent solo and master class appearances worldwide, Molly’s adjudication experience includes work with the National Endowment for the Arts, Australian Flute Festival, National Flute Association (USA), and the Alpert Award in the Arts (Los Angeles). She has commissioned scores of solo and chamber works, and has appeared on television and radio shows nationwide. Molly plays a Burkart flute and piccolo, and a 1953 Haynes alto flute.