UNIVERSITY PARK — Bang on a Can All-Stars will present a chapter in Pennsylvania labor history with ensemble co-founder Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning experimental-classical composition “Anthracite Fields” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in Eisenhower Auditorium.
The Penn State Concert Choir, conducted by Christopher Kiver, will accompany the ensemble, according to a release from Penn State.
A folk and classical music-inspired piece, “Anthracite Fields” debuted in Philadelphia in 2014 and earned the Pulitzer the following year. The five-movement oratorio for choir and sextet commemorates the history of coal-mining life in Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century. A recording of the work received a 2015 Grammy nomination for best contemporary classical composition.
Wolfe, co-founder of Bang on a Can (with composers Michael Gordon and David Lang) and a professor of music composition at New York University, has written myriad works for string ensembles, quartets and full orchestras, as well as for film and theater.
She has mined the history of labor in America to inspire her most recent compositions — coal in “Anthracite Fields” and man vs. machine in “Steel Hammer.’
In addition to the 2015 Pulitzer, the Philadelphia-area native is the recipient of many awards and grants, including the 2015 Herb Albert Award and a 2016 MacArthur “genius” Fellowship.
“Steel Hammer,” which Bang on a Can All-Stars performed at the Center for the Performing Arts in 2009, was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.
Bang on a Can All-Stars, the touring arm of “marathon” performing ensemble Bang on a Can, is a cross-genre music organization dedicated to presenting new concert music.
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State presentation — $42 for an adult, $15 for a University Park student and $32 for a person 18 and younger — are available online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at (814) 863-0255 or (800) ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium, Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk and the Bryce Jordan Center.
