Anthracite Fields by Chris Lee
Anthracite Fields by Chris Lee

Julia Wolfe's 'Anthracite Fields' coming to NYC & other cities ++ upcoming Meredith Monk dates

Julia Wolfe‘s haunting oratorio, Anthracite Fields, which was commissioned through the Meet the Composer’s Commissioning Music/USA program, was inspired by miners in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Region at the turn of the 20th Century and won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. You can watch a PBS performance of Anthracite Fields and listen to a recording below.

First performed in Philadelphia in 2014 by Bang on a Can All Stars and the Mendelssohn Club Chorus, Anthracite Fields will be performed this Saturday (12/1) at Carnegie Hall by Bang on a Can All-Stars and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street. Tickets are on sale. BOAC will also perform the work in Wroclaw, Poland, London, and Dallas, TX in 2019.

Meanwhile, Wolfe’s new work, Fire in my mouth, will be performed by New York Philharmonic, The Crossing Choir, and Young People’s Chorus on January 24 – 26 at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, which will be its world premiere. The description: “Jaap van Zweden conducts Julia Wolfe’s immersive visual and musical event — featuring lights, chamber choir, video, and projection — that explores a seminal event in New York City, the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 that killed more than 100 young immigrants.” Tickets are on sale.

Julia will perform with ETHEL ensemble at the Jewish Museum on February 28 where they’ll perform “the complete string quartets of Julia Wolfe: Dig Deep, early that summer, Four Marys, and Blue Dress for String Quartet.” This is the first-ever performance of all of Julia Wolfe’s string quartets at one time, on one stage. Tickets are on sale.

That London performance of “Anthracite Fields” is part of a two-day BOAC event on January 18 & 19 at Kings Place, that also includes performances by Meredith Monk, Caroline Shaw, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Michael Gordon, and more.

Bang on a Can will also present Meredith Monk at the Jewish Museum on May 23 (more information TBA), and there is the annual People’s Commissioning Fund concert at Merkin Concert Hall on March 6 which is part of the 2019 Ecstatic Music Festival.

Visit BOAC’s website for all upcoming events.

Meredith Monk also has other live performances and events on her schedule, including the “Meredith Monk: Voice As Practice” retreat this weekend at The Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY (sold out); “Meredith Monk in Conversation with Robert Thurman” at NYC’s Rubin Museum on December 12, and she’ll also host the “Vocal Ensemble Weekend Workshop” in NYC on January 11-13. You can also catch her performing “Cellular Songs” at the 2019 Big Ears festival in March. All upcoming Meredith Monk events are listed here.