Anthracite Fields – world premiere 2014

Commissioned by Mendelssohn Chorus (then the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia), Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields premiered in Philadelphia in April 2014 under the direction of Alan Harler, with the Bang on a Can All-Stars. The following year, the work received the Pulitzer Prize in Music.

This oratorio for chorus and instrumental ensemble honors the coal miners and families of the Pennsylvania anthracite region at the turn of the 20th century. Drawing on oral histories, interviews, and historical texts, Wolfe captures the grit, danger, and endurance of mining life, from the young “breaker boys” who sorted coal to the communities built around the mines.

“Anthracite Fields has all the guts of any Wolfe piece, but may be her most attractive work yet. At least, that’s how it sounded in the Mendelssohn Club’s solid performance under Alan Harler.”
David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Wolfe – and the performers and production designers who helped bring Anthracite Fields to life – got it exactly right.”
Associated Press

Photos: Anthracite Fields Rehearsal by Derek Smythe