Bang on a Can composer-founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe don’t just create music. They’ve also created a utopian environment where independent-minded young composers and performers gather every summer for three weeks to immerse themselves in contemporary and experimental music. The institute celebrated its 10th season this summer, and I traveled to North Adams, Massachusetts, to hear the culminating marathon concert at MASS MoCA. As was evidenced by the six hours of excellent performances of exciting new pieces (and a couple of oldies) by the Institute Fellows alongside the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the festival is going full-steam ahead into decade number two.

By Ruby Fulton
The winners are announced on the final day of Gaudeamus Music Week 2010.

By Ruby Fulton
The festival is drawing to a close but the music keeps on coming.

By Ruby Fulton
Johannes Kreidler’s video Product Placements, “Night of the Unexpected” at Paradiso, and canal dragging for bikes.

Ruby Fulton
It makes me wonder if rehearsing and performing are more like the same thing to a gamelan ensemble, as opposed to the Western model, where everything is meant to be performed perfectly in order to be deemed worthy of being put behind the display case in a museum fifty years later.

By Ruby Fulton
Day three of the Gaudeamus Festival was even more music packed than the previous days, with three concerts in three different venues, and performances of eighteen pieces, including seven world premieres. Yowza!

By Ruby Fulton
It’s cool that there are so many venues involved in the festival, inviting listeners to explore lots of different parts of the city.

Composer Ruby Fulton, whose orchestral piece Road Ranger Cowboy has been nominated for the 2010 Gaudeamus Prize, is currently live in Amsterdam and will be filing reports of the ongoing festivities throughout the week.