David Lang is one of the most respected and performed American composers. Lang's score for Paolo Sorrentino's film Youth received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, among others. The Little Match Girl Passion, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices, was praised by the Guardian as “one of the 25 best works of classical music written in the 21st century.” It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 and the recording received a Grammy Award in 2010. His opera Prisoner of the State (to a libretto by Lang) was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, De Doelen in Rotterdam, the Barbican Centre in London, the Barcelona Auditorium, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw in Bruges, and the Malmö Opera, and made its New York debut in June 2019, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Lang is professor of music composition at the Yale School of Music. He is co-founder and co-artistic director of the legendary New York music collective Bang on a Can.

Bill Morrison, called “the poet laureate of lost films” by the New York Times, creates works that rework forgotten archival images. His films have been shown at festivals in New York, Venice, Sundance and Telluride. He is known for Decasia (2002), Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) and Incident (2023), nominated for an Oscar in 2025. As a visual designer, he has signed projections for more than 30 theatrical and musical productions, receiving two Obie and a Bessie Award. Recent works include: Double Bill with Bill Frisell, Huang Ruo's Angel Island, and John Adams' Antony and Cleopatra at the Metropolitan Opera. He has been collaborating for more than 25 years with David Lang, with whom he has done numerous projects including performances and films. darker is their ninth collaboration.