Julia Wolfe

While drawing inspiration from folk, classical and rock music, Julia Wolfe contributes her own specific sensitivity to each of the genres, at the same time reducing the borders between them. In her work, Wolfe is mainly concerned about composing pieces for strings. Her most unusual piece for strings is Stronghold, a true show of artistry for eight double basses, written for Robert Black. Wolfe’s oeuvre also includes a repertoire for theatre. Along with composers Michael Gordon and David Lang, she developed a series of multimedia pieces, including Lost Objects (Concerto Koln under the baton of Francois Girard), Shelter (musik Fabrik and Ridge Theater) and The Carbon Copy Building (in collaboration with Ben Katchor, an American cartoonist). Wolfe’s music has resounded throughout the Brooklyn Academy of Music, at the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, the Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), and the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York. Wolfe is a winner of a number of grants, including from American Academy of Arts and Letters, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art and Dutch Fulbright programme. She has worked with such record labels as: Cantaloupe, Teldec, Point/Universal, Sony Classical and Argo/Decca. She is a co-founder of New York’s music collective, Bang on a Can.