Crowd Out: a new piece for 1000 voices

“Be overwhelmed by the noise, the energy and the commitment of 1000 people – it will be wonderful!”

Simon Halsey, Crowd Out Musical Director

1000 individuals give the world premiere performances of Crowd Out, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang‘s new piece for 1000 voices, in one of the largest vocal events Birmingham has ever seen!

Experience the first-ever performances of a brand new piece of music by one of the world’s leading composers, led by Simon Halsey, one of the world’s top choral conductors.

Influences for Lang’s Crowd Out encompass a wide range of public singing and vocalising, including football chanting – a common theme being the sense of community created through ‘performance’. The result is an entirely new kind of piece that anyone can perform.

Musical America’s 2013 Composer of the Year, the passionate, prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning David Lang is one of America’s most performed composers. BCMG has enjoyed a long and successful relationship with Lang – his last BCMG commission The Passing Measures received huge acclaim and was subsequently recorded on Cantaloupe Records, a recording which was named one of the best CDs of the year by The New Yorker.

Crowd Out is commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group with financial assistance from Arts Council England West Midlands and individuals through BCMG’s Sound Investment scheme; Spitalfields Music with major funding support from Arts Council England and financial assistance from its New Music Commission Fund; and the Education Programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker.