Composer Julia Wolfe. Photo by Peter Serling.
CCM welcomes 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe for a two-day residency on March 10 and 11, 2016. During her stay in Cincinnati, Wolfe will work with students in CCM’s Composition Department during their Composition Symposium.
“I’ve known Julia Wolfe since the early 1990s, when we both had residencies in Amsterdam,” explains CCM Professor of Composition Michael Fiday. “It’s such a thrill to be hosting her as a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer at CCM all these years later.”
In addition to her time with CCM’s rising artists, Wolfe will also attend the CCM Philharmonia’s annual “American Voices” concert at 8 p.m. on March 11, where Director of Orchestral Studies Mark Gibson will lead the ensemble in a performance of Wolfe’s 2004 work Cruel Sister.
A monumental half-hour piece inspired by an old English tale of the same name, Cruel Sister will be performed along with the world premiere of a new symphony by CCM Norman Dinerstein Professor of Composition Scholar Douglas Knehans and a concerto performance of Jennifer Hidgon’s Soprano Sax Concerto featuring CCM Faculty Artist and Performance Studies Division Head James Bunte.
“Julia’s music is both sensitive and visceral, and Cruel Sister is a powerful and bracing piece,” says Fiday. “We’re excited she’ll be here to spend time with our performers and our composition students. Can’t wait!”
Wolfe recently won the Pulitzer Prize for her concert-length oratorio Anthracite Fields, which chronicles the lives and hardships of miners in Pennsylvania’s coalfields. She has also regularly collaborated with and written for some of the world’s most recognized ensembles including the Kronos String Quartet, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra. She is also the co-founder of Bang on a Can, a New York-based community whose mission is to create and perform new music.
Later on this March, the Kronos Quartet and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will perform Wolfe’s My Beautiful Scream as part of this year’s MusicNOW Festival.
Learn more about Julia Wolfe by visiting juliawolfemusic.com.
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