David Lang is one of the most highly esteemed and performed American composers writing today. His works have been performed around the world and in most of the great concert halls.
Most recently, Lang was nominated for both an Oscar and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song- Simple Song #3-from Youth, a film directed by Paolo Sorrentino.
Lang won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in music for The Little Match Girl Passion, 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 on Harmonia Mundi 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 was 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 premieres of a string quartet for the 10th anniversary of Sage Gateshead, a choral piece for the 75th anniversary of Tanglewood Music Center, a new piece for musikFabrik, a new composition for the Bamberg Symphony, and just (after song of songs) for Trio Mediaeval and Saltarello. Lang’s compositional range is highlighted as the 2014-15 Composer-in-Residence at de Doelen in Rotterdam; many of the pieces receive their European premieres.
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 recent film, Youth. In addition to his work as a composer, he 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.
“With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match girl passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a post minimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master.” – The New Yorker