There are many chances to catch performances of David Lang's music during April.
On April 1 the evening-length piece for string orchestra and lighting design darker premieres in Bruges, part of the Ars Musica Festival, with Musiques Nouvelles conducted by Jean-Paul Dessy.
The Shen Wei Dance Arts company keeps up the tour of his poetic Re trilogy, with Lang's music, in Orange County (April 16-18), the Kennedy Center (April 29-30) and beyond.
On April 23 the theater, music theater and opera departments of the University of Texas team up to produce nine performances of the difficulty of crossing a field.
Also on April 23 Maya Beiser takes world to come for cello and eight prerecorded cellos to the Paramount Theatre in Boston.
April 24, the Crash Ensemble takes forced march on a multi-stop tour that begins in London and ends a few weeks later in New York.
On April 25 C. Scott Willis's feature-length documentary on the artist Francesca Woodman and her family premieres in the competition section of the Tribeca Film Festival, with music by Lang performed and recorded by So Percussion.
On April 26 Craig Hella Johnson leads Conspirare in the little match girl passion with five performances in the Austin area that week.
And on April 27 starts a little three-day festival of Lang's music at the Sage Gateshead in the UK, starring such performers as Evelyn Glennie and the Northern Sinfonia, and including the passing measures, the little match girl passion, and the UK premieres of pierced and loud love songs.
‘the little match girl passion’ CD on Harmonia Mundi is appearing on numerous best-CD's-of-2009 lists, including: Washington Post, Time Out New York, National Public Radio, Alex Ross in the New Yorker, The Independent (UK), Gramophone Magazine (UK), the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, De Standaard (Belgium), New Jersey Star Ledger, and Amazon.com.
It starred as Best Classical Album of the Year in Time Out Chicago, and Sequenza 21 named it one of the best CD's of the decade. It is a special holiday recommendation of Mark Swed in the LA Times and of Russell Platt in the New Yorker, and was John Schaefer’s choice for Classical CD of the Year.