News

Portrait Concert at National Sawdust: Bang on a Can All-Stars

December 5, 2024

On December 12 at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, the electrifying Bang on a Can All-Stars play an intimate concert of music by Bang on a Can co-founder Julia Wolfe – a set of new, recent, and ‘classic’ works featuring Wolfe’s signature combination of driving rock energy and minimalist serenity. Join us for an end-of-year hang as Bang on a Can performs Wolfe’s Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, Reeling, Lick and a “sneak peek” of her work Flower Power, for the Bang on a Can All-Stars and orchestra…

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Fountain of Youth: NY Philharmonic

November 4, 2024

November 7, 8, 9 and 12 the New York Philharmonic and conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali perform Julia Wolfe’s Fountain of Youth.

Fountain of Youth is noisy! Washboards! Wild trumpet screams! The search for the fountain of youth went on for thousands of years. Mythology has it that when someone baths in or drinks from the fountain they are transformed, rejuvenated. My Fountain of Youth is music — a sassy, rhythmic, high energy swim…

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Fire in my mouth in Edinburgh

August 23, 2024

Julia Wolfe’s critically-acclaimed Fire in my mouth receives its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Festival August 21, by Marin Alsop and the Philharmonia Orchestra — with Anne Kauffman (director), Jeff Sugg (scenic, lighting, video and production designer) and Márion Talán (costume designer).

Premiered in January 2019 by the New York Philharmonic, Fire in my mouth is based on the garment industry in New York at the turn of the century, with a focus on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and its aftermath…

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Cincinnati Symphony’s May Festival May 17-25

April 8, 2024

Julia Wolfe named Inaugural Festival Director of
Cincinnati Symphony’s

2024 May Festival
May 17-25

Concerts include the world premiere of Wolfe’s new choral fanfare All that breathes, her recent works with orchestra, Her Story and Pretty, as well as her Pulitzer Prize-winning work for chorus and ensemble, Anthracite Fields; plus Michael Gordon’s Natural History and David Lang’s the national anthems; with special guests the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Lorelei Ensemble, and Steiger Butte Singers joining the Cincinnati Symphony and May Festival Chorus…

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Fire in my mouth European Premiere

January 23, 2024

Julia Wolfe’s critically-acclaimed Fire in my mouth receives its European premiere January 26-27 by the Gothenburg Symphony, Santtu-Matias Rouvali — conductor, and the Gothenburg Symphony Womens’ and Girls’ choir, with Anne Kauffman (director), Jeff Sugg (scenic, lighting, video and production designer) and Márion Talán (costume designer).

Listen to New York Philharmonic recording

Premiered in January 2019 by the New York Philharmonic, Fire in my mouth is based on the garment industry in New York at the turn of the century, with a focus on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and its aftermath…

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Berlin Philharmonic premieres ‘Pretty’

September 20, 2023

Pretty
Berlin Philharmonic
world premiere
Kirill Petrenko, conductor
June 8, 9, 10

Berlin Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall

June 8-10, conductor Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic gave the world premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Pretty. Co-commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Pretty was the third premiere of Wolfe’s in as many weeks — beginning May 25 in San Francisco with the west coast premiere of Her Story, and then June 1-3 with the New York Philharmonic’s world premiere of unEarth

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New York Philharmonic, The Crossing, and YPC premiere ‘unEarth’

June 1, 2023

World Premiere
June 1-3

unEarth
New York Philharmonic
Jaap van Zweden, conductor
with soprano Else Torp, The Crossing (men’s ensemble),
and Young People’s Chorus of NYC
stage direction by Anne Kaufman
scenic projection design by Lucy MacKinnon
sound design by Jody Elff
lighting design by Ben Stanton
[event link]

 

[IMAGE] unEarth preview article

(click to read NY Times feature on unEarth)

Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for orchestra, men’s chorus, and children’s chorus, Julia Wolfe’s unEarth is a large-scale work that addresses the climate crisis…

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Her Story Boston Symphony Orchestra premiere

March 16, 2023

Her Story
Boston Symphony Orchestra
with Lorelei

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor

March 16-18
followed by performances with:
San Francisco Symphony and National Symphony

[Her Story] has a ferocity that is literally written into the score, but also an absence of resolution as it looks back to suffrage with one wary eye toward the future steps this country still needs to take for something resembling true equality…

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Chicago Symphony premieres ‘Her Story’

January 6, 2023

[IMAGE] Julia Wolfe's Her Story © 2022, Kurt Heinecke
Her Story
Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Lorelei
January 6-7, 2023

followed by performances with:
Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony,
and National Symphony


[Her Story] has a ferocity that is literally written into the score, but also an absence of resolution as it looks back to suffrage with one wary eye toward the future steps this country still needs to take for something resembling true equality…continue reading

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