Julia Wolfe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Julia Wolfe
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with composers John Cage, David Lang, and Michael Gordon in 1982
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| Born | December 18, 1958 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Composer, Professor of Music |
| Spouse(s) |
Michael Gordon (composer)
(m. 1984) |
| Children | 2 |
Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer. She also teaches music at New York University. People say her music is special. It mixes classic music styles with the repeating sounds of minimalism. It also has the strong energy of rock music.
Julia Wolfe won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. She won it for her piece called Anthracite Fields. This was a big musical story for a choir and instruments. She also received the Herb Alpert Award in 2015. In 2016, she became a MacArthur Fellow. This is a special award for very talented people.
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About Julia Wolfe's Life
Julia Wolfe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has a twin brother and an older brother. When she was a teenager, she learned to play the piano. But she didn't get serious about music until college. She took a music class at the University of Michigan. She earned a degree in music and theater there in 1982. In her early twenties, she wrote music for an all-female theater group.
During a trip to New York, she met two other music students. Their names were Michael Gordon and David Lang. They had studied at the Yale School of Music. They told her to apply there too. She went to Yale in 1984. She mainly studied with Martin Bresnick. She also married Michael Gordon that same year.
After finishing her studies in 1986, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, and David Lang started something new. They created a music group called Bang on a Can in 1987. Today, Bang on a Can is a big organization. It has concert series and tours. It also holds a summer festival for young composers and performers. In 1993, the three friends also started a music publishing company. They later created a record label called Cantaloupe Music in 2001.
Julia Wolfe received a special scholarship to study in Amsterdam in 1992. In 2012, she earned her PhD in music from Princeton University. Since 2009, she has been a music professor at New York University. Before that, she taught at the Manhattan School of Music.
In 2015, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her music piece Anthracite Fields. The next year, in 2016, she received the MacArthur Fellowship. In 2018, she got an honorary degree from Drew University. She was also the special composer at Carnegie Hall in 2021–22.
Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon are married and have two children. They live in New York City.
Julia Wolfe's Music
Julia Wolfe has written many pieces for string instruments. These include music for small groups and for a full orchestra. Her piece Cruel Sister is for string orchestra. It was inspired by an old English song about two sisters. This piece was first played in the U.S. at the Spoleto Festival USA.
Her string quartet piece My Beautiful Scream was written after September 11, 2001. It was inspired by the idea of a very slow scream. She wrote it for the Kronos Quartet. Other pieces like The Vermeer Room and Girlfriend create strong musical pictures. Girlfriend uses sounds like skidding cars and breaking glass. The Vermeer Room was inspired by a painting by Johannes Vermeer.
You can hear pop music in many of Julia Wolfe's works. This includes Lick and Believing. Lick uses parts of funk music. Her piece My Lips From Speaking is for six pianos. It was inspired by the beginning of the song "Think" by Aretha Franklin. Dark Full Ride explores the drum set in a very intense way. Lad is a piece written for nine bagpipes.
Julia Wolfe used old stories and interviews for her Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, Anthracite Fields. This musical story is about coal mining in her home state of Pennsylvania. It was first performed in Philadelphia. It was also played at the New York Philharmonic in 2014.
Her interest in history also led to her piece Steel Hammer. This piece was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. It tells the story of John Henry, a legendary worker. It explores the idea of humans versus machines. The piece uses different versions of the John Henry story.
Julia Wolfe also composed riSE and fLY. This is a piece for a body percussionist. It means the musician makes sounds using their own body. The piece was first played in 2012. Her piece Fire in my mouth was about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. It was first played by the New York Philharmonic in 2019. Her newest piece, unEarth, uses scientific facts about climate change. It was also played by the New York Philharmonic in 2023.
Music for Movies and Plays
Julia Wolfe has also created music for films. This includes Fuel for the Ensemble Resonanz and filmmaker Bill Morrison. She also made music for old 1920s films.
She has worked with many artists. These include theater artist Anna Deavere Smith and architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Her music has been played in famous places. These include the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall.
For theater, she wrote music for Anna Deavere Smith's play House Arrest. She won an award for her music in Ridge Theater's Jennie Richie. She has also worked with Michael Gordon and David Lang. Together, they created big multimedia shows. These include Lost Objects and Shelter. They also made The Carbon Copy Building with comic-book artist Ben Katchor.
Bang on a Can
Julia Wolfe is one of the people who started Bang on a Can. She is an artistic director along with Michael Gordon and David Lang. Bang on a Can is famous for its Marathon Concerts. During these concerts, many different types of music are played for many hours. People can come and go as they like. For their 20th anniversary, they played music for 26 hours straight! In 1992, Bang on a Can also started a music group called the Bang on a Can All-Stars.
Early Bang on a Can events included performances by John Cage. They also featured symphonies by Glenn Branca for many electric guitars. They even put on operas by Harry Partch.
Sometimes, Wolfe, Gordon, and Lang work together on big stage shows. They often don't say who wrote which parts. Their opera The Carbon Copy Building won an award in 2000. It had a comic strip that played along with the singers. They also worked together on the musical story Lost Objects.
Another project was Shelter. This was a multimedia show. It showed the power of nature and the idea of building a new home. It was first played in Germany in 2005.
Both Shelter and Carbon Copy Building were staged by Ridge Theater. In 2017, they wrote Cloud River Mountain with Chinese singer Gong Linna. They also created Road Trip to celebrate Bang on a Can's 30th birthday.
Selected Recordings
- Anthracite Fields by Julia Wolfe with the Choir of Trinity Choir Wall Street and the Bang on a Can All-Stars (2015)
- Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe with Trio Mediæval and the Bang on a Can All-Stars (2014)
- Cruel Sister by Julia Wolfe with Ensemble Resonanz (2011)
- Dark Full Ride by Julia Wolfe (2009)
- Julia Wolfe: The String Quartets featuring artists Ethel, Cassatt Quartet, and Lark Quartet (2003)
- Arsenal of Democracy by Julia Wolfe (2003)
- Lost Objects with artists Michael Gordon, David Lang, Deborah Artman, Roger Epple, Andrew Watts, Daniel Taylor, and Concerto Köln (2001)
