Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart festival is a staple of New York's classical music summer programming. More than likely a contributing factor to the city's summer influx of residents, Mostly Mozart is celebrating 50 years of concerts this year with a unique commission from Pulitzer Prize-winning, Oscar-nominated classical giant David Lang.
Last month, the Center held a press conference to unveil a plethora of world premieres to be featured during the gala. Of course, though, everyone's curiosity fell on Lang's new orchestration, which will feature 1,000 common voices (common meaning voices trained and untrained). During the conference, the composer remarked candidly that he composed an earlier piece entitled Crowd Out that was a manifestation of people "yelling in the street." His latest project follows a similar pattern.
Lang is not excluding anyone from the process, either. Instead, he shared that his vision is to bring the collective knowledge that is present in all humans into the sphere of music, unifying 1,000 voices of men, women and children abound in one grand performance.
The commission, entitled the public domain, asks those who are interested in this unique endeavor to sign up online for a chance to partake in the once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Requests can be filed here.
Additional highlights alongside Lang's new commission will include a new production entitled The Illuminated Heart: Selections from Mozart's Operas, conceived and directed by Netia Jones. Ms. Jones spoke on the panel (in the video below) about how the stage will act as more than just a surface for the performance, noting that there will be panels that extend outward to the audience almost as if the set were "inviting" lookers inward.
Also on the panel was music director Louis Langree, who shared that he will lead the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in semi-staged productions of Così fan tutte and Idomineo; and contemporary music ensemble ICE will premiere 50 works to honor the 50th anniversary season.
Luckily Classicalite was able to capture the important moments from the press conference on video. Please watch to answer all your questions by watching a segment from the talk below.
Tickets go on sale for Friends of Lincoln Center on April 18 and to the general public April 25. The festival will begin July 22 and run until Aug. 27.
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