Julia Wolfe, an internationally celebrated composer and a 2016 MacArthur Fellow, also received the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her work Anthracite Fields (for chorus and instruments). Anthracite Fields draws on oral histories, interviews, speeches, and more to depict the history of labor and hardship in the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Region. Wolfe is a founder/co-artistic director of the New York based music collective Bang on a Can. She received her PhD from Princeton University, MM from the Yale School of Music, and BA from the Residential College at the University of Michigan. 

Well, collaboration is quite different from simply admiring. Hildegard von Bingen was a fascinating composer, philosopher, and mystic. She wrote vocal music. I can imagine adding an orchestra to her sacred monophonic music. Hanging out with her would be interesting.

Breathe

In writing my work Anthracite Fields, I did a deep dive into the Anthracite Coal region in Pennsylvania. Going down into the mines inspired some low-end resonant harmonies.

Joni Mitchell’s "All I want."

Morning! Though when I am closing in on a deadline any time is good.

West Side Story (the original movie.) The songs are spectacular!

The chorus of actual scissors in my work “Fire in my Mouth” was fun to include.

Write the music you want to hear. Trust your ears.

Someone in Germany stood up and started yelling. Then other people in the audience yelled Bravo! It was a bit of a Rite of Spring experience - very exciting.