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PAN PIPES SPRING 2015 SAI-NATIONAL.ORG 8 MUSIC EDUCATION O n April 20, Julia Wolfe received the Pulitzer Prize in Music, for Anthracite Fields, an oratorio for chorus and sextet. e prize honors distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year. Ten thousand dollars accompanies the prize. Wolfe's work conveys Pennsylvania coal- mining life around the turn of the 20th Century. Commissioned through Meet the Composer's Commissioning Music/USA program, it was premiered April 26, 2014, April 26, in Philadelphia by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Mendelssohn Club Chorus. Wolfe is co-founder and co-artistic director of Bang on a Can, known for innovative contemporary music and a training ground for young composers and performers. For Anthracite Fields, Wolfe melded historical texts and data, first-person accounts and original texts to create a libretto which examines the mining culture and community from a very human perspective. Anthracite burns longer, hotter and with considerably less smoke and ash than the more common bituminous coal and was highly prized for both residential and industrial uses. While deposits of anthracite are found all over the world, the single largest concentration is found in 500-square mile area in eastern Pennsylvania. It has been commercially mined since the 1830's and quickly became a foundation of Pennsylvania's economy. It spawned networks of canals and railroads, heated homes along the eastern seaboard from Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York, powered locomotives and fueled the smelters and blast furnaces of the steel industry. e mines attracted waves of immigrants who provided the region with a rich, if not always harmonious, ethnic and cultural diversity. And it was a crucible for important societal and legal reforms, including union representation, collective bargaining, government mediation, and workplace safety and child labor laws. Wolfe's Cruel Sister for string orchestra, inspired by a traditional English ballad of a love rivalry between sisters, was commissioned by the Munich Chamber Orchestra and received its U.S. premiere at the Spoleto Festival. Written shortly aer September 11, 2001, her string quartet concerto My Beautiful Scream, inspired by the idea of a slow motion scream, was written for Kronos Quartet and the Orchestre National de France premiered in the US at the Cabrillo Festival under the direction of SAI Honorary Member Marin Alsop. Girlfriend, for mixed chamber ensemble and recorded sound, uses an audio landscape that consists of skidding cars and breaking glass. Wolfe extended her talents to theatre by composing for Anna Deveare Smith's House Arrest and won an Obie award for her score to Ridge eater's Jennie Richie. She created the city-wide spectacle Traveling Music with architects Diller Scofidio+Renfro in Bordeaux, France, filling the streets of the old city with 100 musicians walking and riding in pedi-cabs. Her music has been heard at BAM, the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Settembre Musica (Italy), eatre de la Ville (Paris), Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and has been recorded on Cantaloupe, Teldec, Point/Universal, Sony Classical, and Argo/Decca. In 2009, Wolfe joined the NYU Steinhardt School composition faculty. e 99th annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama and Music, were awarded on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board, were announced by Columbia University. —juliawolfemusic.com, pulitzer.org Wolfe is Sixth Woman to Win Music Pulitzer WOMEN WHO HAVE WON THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR MUSIC 1983 Ellen T. Zwilich (Beta Alpha initiate) for Three Movements for Orchestra 1991 Shulamit Ran (SAI Composer Bureau member) for Symphony 1999 Melinda Wagner for Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion 2010 Jennifer Higdon (SAI Honorary Member) for Violin Concerto 2013 Caroline Shaw for Partita for 8 Voices 2015 Julia Wolfe for Anthracite Fields Peter Serling Julia Wolfe won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Anthracite Fields. For more information, visit juliawolfemusic.com CLICK FOR MORE

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