Julia Wolfe in Los Angeles

Julia Wolfe is an American composer, born in 1958, whose contemporary classical music draws on post-minimalist repetition and the force of amplified rock. She co-founded the music collective Bang on a Can with Michael Gordon and David Lang. Her best-known works include Steel Hammer, Fire in my mouth and Anthracite Fields, which received the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Anthracite Fields was premiered in Philadelphia in 2014 by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia under Alan Harler. In 2019, Jaap van Zweden led the New York Philharmonic, The Crossing and Young People’s Chorus of New York City in the premiere of Fire in my mouth at David Geffen Hall. Her Story followed in 2022, premiered by the Nashville Symphony and Lorelei Ensemble under Giancarlo Guerrero at Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra founded in Los Angeles in 1919 by William Andrews Clark Jr. Its programs encompass the classical repertory and new orchestral music; it commissioned John Adams’s City Noir, which Gustavo Dudamel conducted at his inaugural concert as music director. The orchestra gave its first concert at Trinity Auditorium in 1919. It made Dorothy Chandler Pavilion its home in 1964, then opened Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003 and established the venue as the center of its subscription season. The orchestra first performed at the Hollywood Bowl during its inaugural 1922 season and has long used the amphitheatre for summer programs. Touring engagements have also brought the ensemble to Carnegie Hall.