Feast for the ears and eyes on Monday, January 12, 2015 in Rotterdam. Ensemble Klang performed the first half of the concert in Doelen Grote Zaal, playing “Lick” by Julia Wolfe and “Men” by John Zorn. The playing was excellent, the hall full, and the Zorn piece also had a video by Matt Mullican of 1910s/20s found video of New York. Still the Zorn piece was much too long for my taste for the material employed, some 45 minutes.

Text from Ensemble Klang’s website reads: “One of our most ambitious projects ever reaches it’s climax this month as we present three iconic works by New York’s Bang on a Can composers.”

The second half was a staged performance of Michael Gordon’s “Trance,” where 20 students from Codarts Conservatoire, Rotterdam, and the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague joined them in the pit to play a rockin’ endurance piece danced to by 18 dancers. Having snagged a seat in the front row, I was very impressed by the dancers’ energy and movement to the choreography that used trenchcoats as a creative prop, and moved between ensemble dancing and several highlighted solo moments. Made for a very cool and entertaining evening.