Cal Performances At Home: Bang on a Can – Julia Wolfe’s 'Steel Hammer' (broadcast on-demand until 8/4/2021)
$15-$225 ($5 UCB student)
Robert Black, double bass
David Cossin, percussion
Vicky Chow, piano
Arlen Hlusko, cello
Mark Stewart, electric guitar, mountain dulcimer, & harmonica
Ken Thomson, clarinets, harmonica
Molly Netter, voice
Rebecca L. Hargrove, voice
Sonya Headlam, voice
Julia Wolfe – Steel Hammer (world premiere)
Cal Performances at Home premieres Steel Hammer, a new film featuring the acclaimed oratorio by Bang on a Can’s co-founder, Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Wolfe. Steel Hammer is a meditation on over 200 versions of the "John Henry" folk ballad. The various versions—based on hearsay, recollection, and tall tales—reveal both the evolution of the story, as well as the timeless tale of human versus machine. Wolfe draws upon these extreme variations, fragmenting and weaving the contradictory versions of the ballad that have circulated since the late 1800s into a new whole in order to tell “the story of the story” and to embody the simultaneous diverse paths it has traveled. To tell the tale, the Bang on a Can All-Stars add a slew of instruments—including mountain dulcimer, wooden bones, banjo, harmonicas, and body percussion—to their usual line up as well as a dynamic trio of three female voices.
“[An] epic explosion and reconstruction of the folk ballad.”
—The Boston Globe on Steel Hammer
This video will premiere on Thu, May 6, 2021 at 7pm Pacific and will be available on demand through August 4, 2021.
Purchase ticket to access the broadcast.
Link to donate: https://calperformances.org/support/individual/