On May 30 and 31, the NY PHIL Biennial presents the New York premiere of Julia Wolfe’s newest work, Anthracite Fields, with the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street (Julian Wachner, conductor). In the new work, Wolfe draws from oral histories, interviews, speeches, geographic descriptions, local rhymes, and coal advertisements to create a unique oratorio that provides an intimate look at an important slice of American life…
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Bang on a Can All-Stars
Biography
Julia Wolfe’s music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. She draws inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, bringing a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them.
Wolfe saw three major orchestra premieres in the 2022-23 season. Pretty was premiered in June 2023 by conductor Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic…
continue readingAnthracite Fields Blog
Steel Hammer CD preorder before 4/20
Pre-order Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer before April 20 and receive advance copies, signed CDs, credit as an Associate Producer (order before February 18), and special hand-drawn score page from Steel Hammer, the hotly anticipated album by Julia Wolfe, featuring the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval.
Inspired by her love for the music and lore of Appalachia, Julia Wolfe based her text for Steel Hammer (called a “wild hybrid” by the New York Times) on over 200 versions of the John Henry ballad, exploring the subject of human vs…
continue readingFountain of Youth premiere
The Fountain of Youth
world premiere
Michael Tilson Thomas
New World Symphony
America’s Orchestral Academy
April 26-27 in Miami Beach, Florida, Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony premiere Julia Wolfe’s newest work, Fountain of Youth, co-commissioned by NWS and Carnegie Hall with a consortium of orchestras: Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony…
continue readingFire in my mouth European Premiere
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…
continue readingFuel and Cruel Sister at Carnegie Hall
This season Julia Wolfe’s large works for string orchestra, Fuel and Cruel Sister, are performed at Carnegie Hall by two of the country’s leading interpretors of contemporary works.
On October 25, Robert Spano leads the American Composers Orchestra in their Carnegie performance of Julia Wolfe’s full-throttled work for strings, Fuel, on a concert dubbed “Orchestra Underground: Adding Fuel to the Fire”…
continue readingHer Story Boston Symphony Orchestra premiere
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…
continue readingNew York Philharmonic, The Crossing, and YPC premiere ‘unEarth’
World Premiere
June 1-3
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]
(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…
continue readingpercussion concerto premieres
On October 11 on the Ether Festival at London’s Southbank Centre, international percussion super star, Colin Currie (with Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra) premieres Wolfe’s newest work for orchestra, riSE and fLY for percussion and orchestra, at the South Bank Centre’s Ether Festival in London.
Using street percussion (buckets and junk percussion) and Appalachian body percussion, Wolfe weaves the soloist into the quilted texture of the orchestra to create an introspective and breathtaking experience…
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