Composer

Among the world’s most distinctive and respected vocal ensembles, Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices—praised for “fearlessness, verve, and beauty” (The Times, London)— makes a rare US visit with the West Coast premieres of two substantial recent works by luminaries of American contemporary music.

Theatre of Voices

Cal Performances

Wolfe was two blocks from the Twin Towers when the planes hit on September 11, 2001. Big Beautiful Dark and Scary is the sound of that aftermath: an ominous, awesome wall of sound. When he wrote his Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky was also recuperating from personal turmoil: after a collapsed marriage and a failed suicide attempt, he escaped to the shores of Lake Geneva. In the company of a violinist muse – Josef Kotek – Tchaikovsky created a concerto of romance, peace and jollity, and a celebrated classic of the repertoire.

EPSG:4326

BBC Philharmonic - Big Beautiful Dark and Scary

The Bridgewater Hall

Big Beautiful Dark and Scary

The ensemble gives the world premiere of Bienen student Tanner Carlson-Huber’s Perpetual Non-Motion Machine. Also on the program are Amy Beth Kirsten’s curious Drink Me, Julia Wolfe's joyfully unwieldy Tell me everything, and Marcos Balter’s pulsating Code-switching.

Contemporary Music Ensemble

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Gershwin’s iconic score takes us on a Parisian sojourn filled with American influence and the blues. Julia Wolfe’s mesmerizing cantata Her Story dramatically explores the historic struggle for women to secure equal rights. Scored for large orchestra and women’s voices, with stage direction by Anne Kauffman, scenic design by Jeff Sugg, and production by Bang on a Can, you won’t want to miss one of the cultural events of the year in Mississippi.

Bars of Red

Mannoni Performing Arts Center Auditorium

Grit courses through Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, her Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio for choir and ensemble that serves as a musical memorial to American miners and their struggle.

BBC Philharmonic - Anthracite Fields

Anthracite Fields

unEarth is a large-scale oratorio about the climate crisis. Written in three movements, the work is realised with spatial staging and scenic design projected on a large circular screen. It combines ancient stories, languages from around the world, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, climate science and words of protest to create a moving, and urgent plea to engage the listener in the climate emergency.

Julia Wolfe: unEarth

Barbican Centre

The Belgian National Orchestra celebrates rhythms and percussion. Gershwin's only opera, Porgy and Bess , distills the essence of jazz and contains timeless tunes like Summertime . With Body Language (2012), Julia Wolfe highlights Colin Currie's physical and musical talent, transforming his body into a veritable instrument to fuse the sounds of urban folk music with those of the orchestra. Andriessen's Tapdance (2013), also written for Currie, magnifies the sound of tap dancing and the memory of big bands. As for Arvo Pärt's Fratres , characteristic of the Estonian composer's ethereal and meditative style, it offers a suspended moment imbued with spirituality.

Porgy & Bess

Philharmonic Hall of Liege

Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, for solo guitarist and 15 other pre-recorded guitar parts, is a cosmopolitan bop referencing west African drumming rhythms and the constant thrum of New York City, dedicated to Pat Metheny; a lively and heady mix only equalled by Sasha Scott’s Rush – an energetic work by one of the UK’s most exciting young composers.

After Dark: Sean Shibe – Electric Counterpoint

Southbank Centre

The “preternaturally gifted” (The New York Times) Yuja Wang joins Yannick and the Orchestra, performing Ravel’s dashing Concerto in G major as the spectacular centerpiece in a sparkling season opener.

2025–26 Season Opening Night

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

For our season opener, an assembly of composers who, by embracing pain, find solace, redemption, and clarity.

BBC Philharmonic - Fountain of Youth

Fountain of Youth

Brahms Horn Trio

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

In a concert exploring the stages of life, Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts Julia Wolfe’s Fountain of Youth and Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony, commissioned to celebrate the Finnish master’s 50th birthday. Soprano Miah Persson ascends the Bravo! Vail stage to sing Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, the composer’s farewell to his life and artistic journey.

Bravo! Vail: Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Miah Persson

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater

In programs featuring cutting-edge new music and important works of the twentieth-century, the Williams Percussion Ensemble (WiPE) surveys a vast terrain of sound and rhythm. The ensemble employs all manner of percussion instruments, found sounds, and electronics to create music that resonates across boundaries of genre and discipline. In addition to music for percussion alone the group presents works for mixed ensembles and new and experimental music for a range of instruments.

Williams Percussion Ensemble

Williams College

Exceptional all-female vocal group Lorelei Ensemble joins the NSO to perform Her Story, Julia Wolfe’s large-scale theatrical work drawn from real letters written by trailblazing suffragettes. Marin Alsop opens the concert with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, an exotic journey of love, peril, and intrigue inspired by the famous folktale about a clever young queen who spins 1001 fantastical stories to outwit a murderous sultan.

Julia Wolfe’s Her Story with the Lorelei Ensemble | Marin Alsop conducts Scheherazade

Kennedy Center

**Hélène Grimaud Plays Brahms with The Philadelphia Orchestra**

Join us for a mesmerizing evening as the world-renowned pianist Hélène Grimaud takes the stage with The Philadelphia Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. This special performance will feature Brahms's First Piano Concerto, a masterpiece that showcases Grimaud's astonishing proficiency and poetic sensibilities, as praised by The Washington Post.

**Event Details:**
- **Dates and Times:**
  - Thursday, February 27, 2025, at 7:30 PM
  - Friday, February 28, 2025, at 2:00 PM
  - Saturday, March 1, 2025, at 8:00 PM
- **Venue:** Verizon Hall, newly rededicated as Marian Anderson Hall, home of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
- **Program:**
  - Louise Farrenc: Symphony No. 1
  - Julia Wolfe: Pretty (Philadelphia Orchestra co-commission)
  - Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1

This concert not only highlights Grimaud's unparalleled talent but also celebrates women artists, featuring the 19th-century composer Louise Farrenc's surging, Romantic First Symphony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe's raucous, rhythmic romp, "Pretty."

**Subscription and Tickets:**
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**Additional Information:**
- Programs, artists, dates, prices, and availability are subject to change.
- For ticket sales, subscriber services, group sales, and donor services, please contact:
  - Ticket Sales: 215.893.1999
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Don't miss this unforgettable experience as Hélène Grimaud and The Philadelphia Orchestra bring Brahms's First Piano Concerto to life in the splendid acoustics of Verizon Hall.

Hélène Grimaud Plays Brahms

Fan favorite Dejan Lazić returns to offer us Shostakovich’s sunny 2nd Piano Concerto. Daniel Raiskin makes his ISO debut, conducting Tchaikovsky’s popular 3rd Orchestral Suite and a raucous, rock-and-roll-inspired new work by Julia Wolfe titled Pretty, a work commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic.

Tchaikovsky And Shostakovich

Hilbert Circle Theatre

Embodying “undivided devotion to the musical material,” the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices is a go-to collaborator for many of today’s most visionary composers. In Zankel Hall alone, they have premiered new works by such artists as Arvo Pärt, David Lang, and Ingram Marshall. In this performance—in the intimate, in-the-round Zankel Hall Center Stage configuration—they sing a world premiere by the category-defying Julia Wolfe, a US premiere by John Luther Adams that takes listeners on a journey through the geological layers of the Grand Canyon, and a recent work by Michael Gordon that combines playfully direct lyrics with sumptuously scored singing.

Carnegie Hall

Experience an evening of musical brilliance with the Nashville Symphony under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero, featuring the innovative Bang on a Can All-stars. This concert showcases the symphony's commitment to contemporary and classical music, highlighted by a live recording of Julia Wolfe's "Flower Power." Inspired by the 1960s counterculture movement, Wolfe's composition embodies optimism, idealism, psychedelia, and a touch of love and peace, reflecting a break from convention. Complementing this modern piece is Richard Wagner's dramatic "Overture to The Flying Dutchman," setting a powerful tone for the evening. The program culminates with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, a work the composer himself regarded as one of his finest. This symphony is celebrated for its rhythmic vitality and emotional depth, making it a timeless masterpiece. Prior to the concert, attendees can enrich their experience with "Classical Conversations," a discussion held in the Balcony Lobby that delves into the evening's program. This event promises a captivating blend of historical and contemporary sounds, offering a unique auditory journey.

Flower Power and Beethoven's Seventh

Nashville Symphony Schermerhorn Symphony Center

With the opening program on the theme of "America", Santtu-Matias Rouvali shows the musical diversity of the continent. Jazz great Duke Ellington is an example of African-American composers. His orchestral triptych "Three Black Kings" is a musical tribute to three mythological and historical black personalities. As a contemporary composer, Julia Wolfe reflects historical and current events in her music. The German cellist Alban Gerhardt presents Wolfe's energetic cello concerto "Wind in My Hair" as a German premiere. Charles Ives is considered the central figure of new music in America and the first American symphonist to emancipate himself from the European musical tradition. In his Symphony No. 2, Ives quotes traditional American melodies and weaves them with references to European Romanticism to create a complex and expressive sound fabric.

Ellington Wolfe Ives

Gasteig HP8

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts a program exploring the stages of life. Julia Wolfe calls music her fountain of youth, and her piece by that name offers, writes the composer, “a rhythmic, high-energy swim.” Soprano Miah Persson sings Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, the composer’s farewell to his life and artistic journey. Sibelius’s Fifth, commissioned to celebrate his 50th birthday, ends in staggering triumph.

Rouvali Leads Julia Wolfe, Strauss & Sibelius

David Geffen Hall

The first movement, Immigration, describes the tension and excitement over a new life in a new country. In Factory, Wolfe mixes folk tunes with the sound of sewing machines. Protest uses the employees' own words from the demonstrations. Fire combines dramatic news reports with the desperate cries of the victims.

Ultima Det Norske Solistkor Grete Pedersen

Oslo Concert Hall

Fire in my mouth commemorates the most fatal industrial disaster in New York’s history. Against the backdrop of the worker’s protest movement, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire stole the lives of 146 garment workers, who were mostly women of immigrant backgrounds. Here, every victim is represented by a choir member. Yiddish and Italian folk songs, along with the clatter of the factory and the terror of the inferno, create a haunting soundscape.

Philharmonia Orchestra Residency: Fire in my mouth

Usher Hall

Join us at the Edinburgh International Festival for a groundbreaking performance of Julia Wolfe's "Fire in my mouth," presented by the Philharmonia with Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop. This UK premiere takes place at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on Wednesday, 21 August 2024, at 8pm.

"Fire in my mouth" is a powerful commemoration of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York, the deadliest industrial disaster in the city's history, which claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, predominantly women of immigrant backgrounds. The performance uniquely represents each victim through a choir member, blending Yiddish and Italian folk songs with the sounds of the factory and the fire to create a hauntingly vivid soundscape.

This multimedia performance is enhanced by the award-winning scenic, lighting, and video designs of Tony Award-winner Jeff Sugg, promising an unforgettable experience.

Featuring the talents of Marin Alsop as conductor, alongside the Sopranos and Altos of the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the NYCOS National Girls Choir, this event is a must-see at the festival.

Tickets start from £20, with concessions available for D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people, under 18s, arts workers, and under 30s. A limited number of £10 Affordable Tickets are also available to ensure accessibility for all.

Don't miss this poignant tribute to a pivotal moment in history, brought to life through the power of music and multimedia storytelling. Book your tickets now and be part of this extraordinary event at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Edinburgh International Festival: Fire in my mouth

The Usher Hall

Trailblazing (New York Times) conductor Marin Alsop, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the female voices of the National Youth Choir of Scotland come together for the first UK performance of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth.

Julia Wolfe’s Her Story invokes the words of historical figures and the spirit of pivotal moments in history to pay tribute to the centuries of ongoing struggle for equal rights and representation for women in America. From the letters of Abigail Adams to words attributed to Sojourner Truth, Her Story, as explained by Julia Wolfe, “captures the passion and perseverance of women refusing subordination, demanding representation and challenging the prejudice and power structures that have limited women’s voices.” The dynamic vocal artists of the Lorelei Ensemble join the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for this immersive and visual presentation, with staging by Anne Kauman, before the May Festival Chorus closes the program with Gabriel Fauré’s tender and comforting Requiem.

Her Story

Cincinnati Music Hall

Celebrating the natural wonders of earth and the perseverance of miners in Pennsylvania coal country, this program reflects both the beauty and tragedy of humanity’s relationship with our planet. Natural History is a collaboration between composer Michael Gordon and the Steiger Butte Singers. Written and commissioned to mark the centennial of the National Park System, the piece poses the question: If Crater Lake National Park were a symphony, what would it sound like? The result is a surround-sound celebration of nature and the park’s spiritual connection to the surrounding community. In contrast, Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields is a haunting and powerful oratorio that captures not only the sadness of lives lost in the anthracite coal fields at the turn of the 20th century, but a way of daily life now also lost. The Bang on a Can All-Stars lend their ferocity to this profound work alongside the May Festival Chorus.

Voices of the Earth

Anthems can represent freedom from suffering or victory in war, celebrate nations, sow peace or even pump up a crowd from the rock ‘n’ roll stage. What they all share in common is the power to unite and remind us of our shared humanity. This program of four unique anthem interpretations opens with the world premiere of Julia Wolfe’s choral work All that breathes, which embraces the massive sound of collective breath and exhalation, while David Lang‘s the national anthems reminds us that freedom is fragile, delicate and easy to lose. Julia Wolfe’s Pretty is a raw and raucous feminist anthem of work rhythms — thwarting notions of what pretty can mean. Closing out the program is Vaughan Williams’ beloved anthem for peace, Dona nobis pacem, written and premiered just a few years prior to the start of World War II.

Anthems

The programme includes the exciting dancing textures created by pioneering multi-layered tape pieces such as Steve Reich’s Violin Phase and Vermont Counterpoint. Richly complex patterns create compelling listening in Julius Eastman’s Joy Boy and modern New York icon Julia Wolfe’s East Broadway. We’ll look to the British version of the movement with Michael Nyman’s captivating In C Interlude while the weaving melodies hypnotise in Anna Clyne’s Just as they are. The concert will close with a performance of Gavin Bryars’ extraordinary Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, in celebration of the composer’s strong links to Portsmouth in his highly experimental ensemble the Portsmouth Sinfonia.  

Minimalism

Portsmouth Guildhall

Mini Concert in the Lobby

World Trade Center

100 Years of Women Composers

Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church

Steve Reich and Terry Riley have each had a profound influence on the way we listen to music. The term “minimalism” is often used to characterize their music, yet the music itself is anything but minimal; incorporating much nuance and subtlety that is maximal in imagination and innovation.

6 Pianos 12 Hands (Keyed Up! #3)

Jane Mallett Theatre

Power takes many forms. It can be the majesty of Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto, known as the “Emperor.” Israeli pianist Tom Borrow, a world traveler at just 22, brings his “supremely incandescent” touch to the concerto, written at a time of war. It can be American composer Julia Wolfe’s Pretty, tearing down walls between musical styles, between players and audiences, between genders. It can be the sheer orchestral power and imagination of Hector Berlioz’s virtuosic overture to the comic Shakespearean opera Beatrice and Benedict.  

Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto

Touhill Performing Arts Center

Enjoy music by American composers–from the classic charm of Charles Ives to the world-renowned songs of Jim Papoulis, and the premiere of his string quartet:“Behind Shadows.”

All American

First Congregational United Church of Christ

The Newberry

The Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble utilizes a flexible instrumentation of winds, brass, and percussion to perform repertoire from standard concert band works to contemporary compositions of various instrumental combinations. 

Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble

Carnegie Mellon University

Audience favorite Jean-Yves Thibaudet applies his peerless technique and poetic touch to Ravel’s blues-tinged Piano Concerto in G. Music Director Juraj Valčuha and the orchestra perform the U.S. premiere of Pretty, a co-commission from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe. And, the Viennese waltz takes a walk on the wild side in Ravel’s showstopping La valse.

Ravel's La Valse

Jones Hall

Symphonic Dances Festival: Valčuha Conducts Ravel's La valse

Pulitzer Prize winning composer Julia Wolfe will be sharing her musical journey to writing large-scale multi-media works for orchestras, choruses, and amplified ensemble. Coupling music with staging and video in works like Anthracite Fields and Her Story, Wolfe gives voice to unsung histories. These works take on charged historical moments to reflect on who we have been and who we are now.

Professor Julia Wolfe - Class of 1960 Music Lecture

Bernhard Music Center,

The second weekend of the Cabrillo Festival begins with works by Gabriella Smith, Julia Wolfe, Gabriela Ortiz, Robert Hughes, and Olga Neuwirth.

Gabriella Smith’s music is described as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “the coolest, most exciting, most inventive new voice I’ve heard in ages” (Musical America). Her work, f(x)=sin²x-1/x, draws inspiration from mathematical curves to build waves of musical energy

Rise And Fly

Civic Auditorium Santa Cruz

Folk/rock/classical mixologist Julia Wolfe’s profound new work Her Story is paired with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade in a program that examines the ongoing struggle and perseverance of women.

HER STORY

Davies Symphony Hall

Minimalist master Steve Reich returns to his New York arts scene roots in this bright and rhythmically agile piece, written and performed alongside painter Gerhard Richter’s film Moving Picture. The film starts with a two-pixel pulsating, colour-shifting line, which becomes four pixels, then sixteen, then 32 and so on. The music starts with a two-note oscillation that expands equally but then becomes liberated from the structure of the forms on film, allowing notes to escape and create their own destiny in this cool and elegant piece. Music by two other masters of the New York scene complement Reich’s music, while the London Sinfonietta, with Sound Intermedia, re-create Nunu, its commission from the late and sadly missed Mira Calix.

Reich/Richter

Composer, trumpeter, and standard-bearer for the art form, jazz legend Wynton Marsalis has earned scores of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 1983, he became the first and only artist ever to win both a Classical and Jazz Grammy in the same year; in 1984 he did it again. Joined by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra performs Marsalis’s newest work on a program with Beethoven’s lively, melodic Seventh Symphony.

Beethoven and Marsalis

Giancarlo Guerrero brings the 2026 season to an epic close with none other than Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, a musical affirmation of humanity on a grand scale. To conclude our season-long celebration of American music, the program begins with Julia Wolfe’s raucous Liberty Bell and Michael Daugherty’s monumental Mount Rushmore.

Composer

Julia Wolfe

Events

Upcoming events

28 - 31 May, 2026

Beethoven and Marsalis · Philadelphia Orchestra

14 - 15 Aug, 2026

Beethoven Symphony No. 9 · Grant Park Music Festival

Past events

Apr 26, 2026

Theatre of Voices · Cal Performances

Apr 25, 2026

BBC Philharmonic - Big Beautiful Dark and Scary · The Bridgewater Hall

About

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