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sai-national.org • Summer 2023 5 Music Notes The Pulitzer Prize in Music is awarded annually to a distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the preceding year. This year's winner is Omar, an opera written by SAI Composers Bureau member Michael Abels and Rhiannon Giddens. It was co-commissioned and co-produced by Spoleto Festival USA and Carolina Performing Arts at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; it premiered on May 27, 2022 at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, S.C. Omar, sung in English with some Arabic, is "an innovative and compelling opera about enslaved people brought to North America from Muslim countries, a musical work that respectfully represents African as well as African American traditions, expanding the language of the operatic form while conveying the humanity of those condemned to bondage" (pulitzer.org).The piece is based on information from the 1831 autobiography of West African scholar Omar ibn Said and additional sources found in the Louis Round Wilson Library. Emmy- and Grammy-nominated composer Michael Abels is best known for his genre- defying scores for the Jordan Peele films Get Out, Us, and Nope. The score for Us won a World Soundtrack Award, the Jerry Goldsmith Award, a Critics Choice nomination, multiple critics awards, and was named "Score of the Decade" by The Wrap. Both Us and Nope were shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Original Score. In 2022, Abels' music was honored by the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Middleburg Film Festival, and the Museum of the Moving Image. Nope was awarded Best Score for a Studio Film by the Society of Composers & Lyricists. Upcoming projects include The Burial (on Amazon), and a series for Disney Plus. Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk Omar Wins 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music 2014 2014 John Luther Adams — Become Ocean 2015 2015 Julia Wolfe — Anthracite Fields 2016 2016 Henry Threadgill — In for a Penny, In for a Pound 2017 2017 Du Yun — Angel's Bone 2018 2018 Kendrick Lamar — Damn 2019 2019 Ellen Reid — p r i s m 2020 2020 Anthony Davis — The Central Park Five 2021 2021 Tania León — Stride 2022 2022 Raven Chacon — Voiceless Mass 2023 2023 Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels — Omar A DECADE OF PULITZER A DECADE OF PULITZER PRIZES FOR MUSIC PRIZES FOR MUSIC Learn more at https://michaelabels.com/ and https://rhiannongiddens.com/ Michael Abels Michael Abels music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time Grammy Award winning singer and instrumentalist, MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of liing up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country's musical origins through art. For her third solo studio album, You're e One, out August 18 on Nonesuch Records, she recruited producer Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Alicia Keys, Valerie June, Tank and the Bangas) to help her bring this collection of songs that she'd written over the course of her career — her first album of all originals — to life at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami. Rhiannon Giddens Rhiannon Giddens