About Us
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe's music is muscular and kinetic and experienced through the body. She creates journeys like unfolding dramatic landscapes, a music meant to be entered into by the listener. Wolfe's work is distinguished by this intense focus on sound, the power of sound, the ways in which sound is related to memory and experience, the possibilities for new harmonies between familiar chords and micro tonal tunings or sounds found in nature and the urban world. With a care and attention to detail that is both masterful and highly respectful, Wolfe's music celebrates the extraordinary qualities contained within something as specific as a gesture or an inflection.
Julia Wolfe's music is heard around the world in performances at the Next Wave Festival at BAM, the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Settembre Musica (Italy), the Holland Festival, Theatre de la Ville (Paris), the San Francisco Symphony, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, and more. Upcoming works include a new work FUEL for Ensemble Resonanz with a film by Bill Morrison, and an evening length work with film for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Recent works include My Beautiful Scream for Kronos and Orchestra, Cruel Sister for string orchestra, Impatience for the Asko Ensemble to the film of the same name by early Belgian experimentalist Charles Dekeukeleire, and an accordian concerto commissioned by the Miller Theater and written for Guy Klucevsek.
Recent collaborations with composers Michael Gordon and David Lang with writer Deborah Artman include Shelter written for musikFabrik and trio mediaeval with staging by the Ridge Theater Company; Lost Objects, an oratorio with Concerto Koln directed by Francois Girard; with Gordon and Lang The Carbon Copy Building with comic book artist Ben Katchor and the Ridge Theater. For The Carbon Copy Building, she received the 2000 Village Voice OBIE Award for Best New American Work. Wolfe received a 2001 OBIE for the music to Jennie Ritchie, a collaboration with playwright Mac Wellman and Ridge Theater.
Her recording "Julia Wolfe - The String Quartets" was released on the Cantaloupe label. Wolfe's music has also been recorded on Teldec, Universal, Sony Classical, and Argo/Decca.
(excerpt from a bio by Deborah Artman)