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Julia Wolfe

Anthracite Fields

Cantaloupe Music

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Anthracite Fields by Julia Wolfe: Full Documentary
Composer Julia Wolfe | 2016 MacArthur Fellow

Tour Dates

01/31/2019 - Teatro Verdi / Pordenone, Italy
02/28/2019 - Jewish Museum / New York, NY
04/09/2019 - Fox Cabaret / Vancouver, BC
04/15/2019 - Moody Performance Hall / Dallas, TX
04/26/2019 - New World Center / Miami Beach, FL
04/27/2019 - New World Center / Miami Beach, FL
04/29/2019 - Yale Institute of Sacred Music / New Haven, CT
05/01/2019 - Carnegie Hall / New York, NY
06/28/2019 - Wigmore Hall / London, United Kingdom
1 Foundation
2 Breaker Boys
3 Speech
4 Flowers
5 Appliances
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Haunting, poignant and relentlessly physical, Julia Wolfe's Anthracite Fields is a lovingly detailed oratorio about turn-of-the-20th-century Pennsylvania coal miners, and a fitting recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. NPR Music's Tom Huizenga describes the piece as "...almost a public history project and a music project at the same time," which hints at the work's universal appeal. Weaving together personal interviews that she conducted with miners and their families, along with oral histories, speeches, rhymes and local mining lore, Wolfe sought to honor the working lives of Pennsylvania's anthracite region. "It's not necessarily mainstream history," she told NPR shortly after she received word of winning the Pulitzer. "The politics are very fascinating-the issues about safety, and the consideration for the people who are working and what's involved in it. 

9 NEW  22 Total
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, New Orleans, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Portland, Austin, Baltimore
Online: The New Yorker, Second Inversion, Taintradio, Audiophile Audition

  • How composer Julia Wolfe became a renegade / NPR
    Posted At: September 15, 2022 12:00 AM
    NPR's Tom Huizenga writes…Sometimes, all you need is a little push. In the fall of 1976, when Julia Wolfe arrived at the University of Michigan from Pennsylvania, she was just 17 and viewed herself as a "wild teenager" with her sights on social sciences and politics. Activism was a possible path. Music wasn't on her radar.
     But one day, a friend coaxed Wolfe into taking a peculiar music class, taugh...
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  • 2020 classical music GRAMMY nominees breathe new life into the genre / CapRadio
    Posted At: January 7, 2020 12:00 AM

    While you may not see much classical music representation on your TV screen during the 2020 Grammy awards, music's biggest evening this year is worth a look for classical fans. The classical music community may not take the Grammys as seriously as, say, the rest of the world. But in recent years, the nominating committee have taken an increasing interest in music from living composers, breathing new life...
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  • NY Phil: Julia Wolfe - Fire In My Mouth selected as GRAMOPHONE: Editor's Choice - the best new classical albums: January 2020
    Posted At: January 3, 2020 12:00 AM

    The New York Philharmonic and Music Director Jaap van Zweden's World Premiere performances of Julia Wolfe's Fire in my mouth released in 2019 on Decca Gold. The Orchestra also co-commissioned the piece featuring The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally, and the Young People's Chorus of New York City, directed by Francisco J. Núñez. The New York Times called the work "ambitious, h...
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  • WQXR's 'Best Classical Concerts of 2019'
    Posted At: December 18, 2019 12:00 AM

    Dec 18, 2019 · by David Patrick Stearns Maybe this is the New York catastrophizing mentality, but whenever I come off of a particularly good opera and concert year, I start worrying that a recession is on the way and all of that wonderful artistic momentum will be lost. You never know: just because your name is Cassandra doesn't mean the worst isn't happening. So the healthiest approach is to ...
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  • Julia Wolfe - 'Fire in my mouth' makes 'npr:10 classical albums to usher in the next decade'
    Posted At: December 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    Traditions worth saving still need need practitioners and advocates who are willing to propel them forward. Classical music boasts a long, rich history - about 1000 years - of transformation, adaptation, tumult and triumph. From radical, boundary-bashing composers to brave and bold interpreters, the music has remained vibrantly alive even as prognosticators routinely forecast its demise. The list bel...
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  • CapRadio classical hosts' pick best music of the decade
    Posted At: December 3, 2019 12:00 AM

    Ear To Ear, as CapRadio Classical Hosts' Victor Forman, Kevin Doherty, Jennifer Reason Pick the Best Music Of The Decade. Choosing the best classical music of the decade is a herculean task, but CapRadio Classical hosts Jennifer Reason, Kevin Doherty and Victor Forman have undertaken the challenge for you in this month's Ear to Ear playlist blog. With everything from new operas to significant reimag...
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  • NY Phil: Julia Wolfe - Fire In My Mouth selected for 2020 GRAMMY nomination
    Posted At: November 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    NY Phil: Julia Wolfe - Fire In My Mouth selected for 2019 GRAMMY nomination for Best Engineered Album & Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The New York Philharmonic and Music Director Jaap van Zweden's World Premiere performances of Julia Wolfe's Fire in my mouth on Decca Gold features; The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally, and the Young People's Chorus of New York City, dire...
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  • Peak Performances will premiere Julia Wolfe, Maya Beiser collaboration - Spinning / Broadway World
    Posted At: April 17, 2018 12:00 AM

    Montclair State University's Peak Performances presents the world premiere of Spinning, a collaborative musical work written and composed by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Julia Wolfe (Anthracite Fields, 2015), and conceived with "cello goddess" (The New Yorker) Maya Beiser, with multimedia projections by innovative artist Laurie Olinder (May 10-13). Commissioned by Peak Performances and ...
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  • For the 16th summer in a row, Bang on a Can is in residence at MASS MoCA / Northeast Public Radio
    Posted At: July 30, 2017 12:00 AM

    p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} For the 16th summer in a row, new music collective Bang on a Can is in residence at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., for its three-week summer music festival and institute. Festival highlights include a preview performance of the Bang on a Can All-Stars' Road Trip, which takes place on Saturday night August 5 at 8...
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  • Commemorating coal mining, Penn State's EMS Museum hosts conversation with Julia Wolfe & concert with Bang On A Can
    Posted At: March 27, 2017 12:00 AM

    The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) is hosting a conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Wolfe along with other events commemorating the history of coal mining in Pennsylvania, from 4-5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, in the EMS Museum & Art Gallery, ground floor of the Deike Building on the University Park campus. The events are free and open to the public. The EMS Museum & Art ...
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  • Cal Performances presents - Julia Wolfe's Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Anthracite Fields' with 'Bang on a Can all-stars' & 'Cappella SF'
    Posted At: February 26, 2017 12:00 AM

    Luminaries of the new music world, the chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars joins with Cappella SF for a performance of founding member Julia Wolfe's Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields. The poignant oratorio weaves together oral histories, personal interviews, speeches, and local lore with electro-acoustic chamber music to tell the stories of Pennsylvania coal miners and their families at t...
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  • Bang on a Can Marathon celebrates 30th ann. in a new home - the Brooklyn Museum / The New York Times
    Posted At: February 3, 2017 12:00 AM

    The Bang on a Can Marathon will celebrate its 30th anniversary in a new home across the East River. After many years in downtown Manhattan, the annual eight-hour celebration of contemporary classical music will take place at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, May 6. The concert will be a part of the museum's yearlong project "A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism," and will include works by Meredith Monk, Ju...
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  • For Julia Wolfe music is more than melodies, harmonies, and notes / The Daily Princetonian
    Posted At: October 5, 2016 12:00 AM

    For Julia Wolfe GS '12, composing music is more than just melodies, harmonies, and notes - it's a mix of musical and nonmusical elements. "In most pieces, I'm thinking about something extra-musical. While I'm thinking about notes, rhythms, and harmonies, I'm also creating an image, a narrative in my mind," Wolfe said. Wolfe was named as one of the 23 winners of this year's MacArthur Fellowship on Sept. 2...
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  • Julia Wolfe awarded MacArthur Fellowship / Los Angeles Times
    Posted At: September 23, 2016 12:00 AM

    After receiving the Pulitzer Prize for music last year, a Grammy Award nomination and other praise for her coal-mining-themed choral work "Anthracite Fields," composer Julia Wolfe can add another accolade to her professional mantel: a MacArthur Fellowship, a five-year grant that comes with an unrestricted $625,000 stipend. Wolfe was told about the fellowship earlier this month but could not reveal the ne...
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  • Julia Wolfe's 'Anthracite Fields' presents voices from the coal mines / Studio 360
    Posted At: August 15, 2016 12:00 AM

    Composer and Bang on a Can co-founder Julia Wolfe won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in music for "Anthracite Fields," an hour-long oratorio for chorus and sextet, inspired by the lives of Pennsylvania coal miners a century ago. Wolfe was born in Philadelphia and grew up not far from Pennsylvania coal country. She says that the subject matter of "Anthracite Fields" might have been percolating for quite a while,...
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  • Ensemble Keeps Contemporary Music Banging at International Festival of Arts & Ideas / New Haven Independent
    Posted At: June 22, 2016 12:00 AM

    "The idea of Bang on a Can is to go somewhere you haven't been before," said Julia Wolfe of Bang on a Can. "When there were record stores, and music was sectioned off, we used to fall into the cracks of those sections. There were blurred lines and we were in that blur." Bang on a Can has made its career by thriving in that blur. Since its first marathon concert in 1987, it has championed new music by...
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  • Julia Wolfe goes underground for 'Anthracite Fields' / KPCC: The Frame
    Posted At: March 7, 2016 12:00 AM

    Julia Wolfe is the composer of "Anthracite Fields," an hour-long oratorio about Pennsylvania coal miners at the turn of the 20th century. The work, which took home the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for music, blends music with anthropological studies to create a poetic history - both of the miners' way of life and their broader impact on the world. After Wolfe was commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club of Ph...
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  • Julia Wolfe's Pulitzer-winning 'Anthracite Fields' makes West Coast debut at Disney Hall / Los Angeles Times
    Posted At: March 2, 2016 12:00 AM

    When you win a Pulitzer Prize for music, you hear about it just like everyone else - in the news perhaps, or from other people who read about it before you do. "You don't know anything," said composer Julia Wolfe, who won the coveted award last year for her choral piece "Anthracite Fields," an unconventional exploration into the history of coal mining in rural Pennsylvania. Wolfe recalled that sh...
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  • Julia Wolfe: Anthracite Fields up for GRAMMY! / Philly.com
    Posted At: February 14, 2016 12:00 AM

    Haunting, poignant and relentlessly physical, Julia Wolfe's Anthracite Fields is a lovingly detailed oratorio about turn-of-the-20th-century Pennsylvania coal miners, and a fitting recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. NPR Music's Tom Huizenga describes the piece as "...almost a public history project and a music project at the same time," Weaving together personal i...
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  • Who Are the 2016 Classical GRAMMY Nominees? / WRTI Radio takes a look
    Posted At: February 2, 2016 12:00 AM

    The recording industry gives out the GRAMMY Awards in two weeks on February 15th, as the 58th Awards will honor "artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence." Ten categories are reserved for classical music, including Producer of the Year and Best Engineered Album awards. Others are for Orchestral Performance, Opera, Choral, Chamber Music and Small Ensemble, Instrumental and Vocal ...
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  • Julia Wolfe's 'Anthracite Fields' Makes Iowa Public Radio?s 2015 Mega-Meta-List
    Posted At: January 15, 2016 12:00 AM

    Today's output of classical albums is (pardon me while I scribble on the back of an envelope) something like triple what it was a generation ago. I won't vouch for that exact ratio, but I will for Anne Midgette's description of how it feels: "Keeping up with the stream of new releases is like trying to drink from a fire hose." Now imagine trying to capture a hose's jet...
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  • Julia Wolfe's 'Steel Hammer' brought to life at BAM
    Posted At: January 5, 2016 12:00 AM

    In the realm of American folklore, almost nothing quite compares to the tale of John Henry. The Appalachian legend tells of a steel-driving man who hammered holes for dynamite during the construction of the railroad. John was renowned for his speed and skill and eventually tested his hammering prowess in a competition against a steam-powered hammer. John won the race but died once it was over. Since its ...
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  • Yale Alum - Julia Wolfe gets GRAMMY Nom for Anthracite Fields / Yale School of Music
    Posted At: December 9, 2015 12:00 AM

    Several Yale School of Music alumni were among the musicians nominated for Grammy Awards. The nominations for the 2016 awards were announced Monday, December 7. Julia Wolfe '86 MM was nominated for Anthracite Fields, recorded for Cantaloupe Music by Julian Wachner with the Choir Of Trinity Wall Street and the Bang On A Can All-Stars. This same work won Wolfe the Pulitzer Prize earlier this ...
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  • Julia Wolfe Premieres 'Steel Hammer'@BAM Next Wave Festival
    Posted At: December 5, 2015 12:00 AM

    Julia Wolfe is premiering her 2009 folklore drama Steel Hammer at BAM from December 2-6. The work centers around John Henry and is part of 2015's Next Wave Festival. Wolfe has an uncanny ability to channel Appalachian folk music in a way that old folkies could not. The story of John Henry is not anything uncommon--actually, it's been championed by the likes of Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, Bruce Spri...
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  • Julia Wolfe - Anthracite Fields / Audiophile Audition review
    Posted At: November 30, 2015 12:00 AM

    Julia Wolfe is a consistently fascinating, and challenging, composer. Her music often takes small, lesser known, ‘slices of life' stories and gives them life and an audience through her music. Works such her Steel Hammer and Cruel Sister are a perfect example. She accomplishes the same and more inAnthracite Fields; which won her the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for music. Anthracite ...
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  • Julia Wolfe - Anthracite Fields / SF Gate review
    Posted At: November 27, 2015 12:00 AM

    Julia Wolfe's Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio "Anthracite Fields" is a thrillingly versatile tribute - by turns elegiac and celebratory, rambunctious and reflective - to the world of coal mining and miners in the composer's home state of Pennsylvania. The work's five movements are scored for chorus (the superb Choir of Trinity Wall Street led by Julian Wachner) and instrumental sextet (the Bang on a Can ...
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  • Julia Wolfe's Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'Anthracite Fields' is a Hard-Rocking Affair / Q2
    Posted At: September 28, 2015 12:00 AM

    All three founding composers of the Bang on a Can collective-Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon-create music of unusual purity and violence. At times it even can be difficult to tell, in the vocal works they write together, where one composer leaves off and another begins, but Wolfe is arguably the hard-rocker of the three. Not the loudest, necessarily-that would be a tough call-but Wolfe is the...
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