Julia Wolfe | Anthracite Fields

Haunting, poignant, and relentlessly physical, Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields is a lovingly detailed oratorio about turn-of-the-20th-century Pennsylvania coal miners, and a fitting recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. NPR Music’s Tom Huizenga describes the  piece as “almost a public history project and a music project at the same time,” which hints at the work’s universal appeal. Weaving together personal interviews that she conducted with miners and their families, along with oral histories, speeches, rhymes, and local mining lore, Wolfe sought to honor the working lives of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite region. “It’s not necessarily mainstream history,” she told NPR shortly after she received word of winning the Pulitzer. “The politics are very fascinating—the issues about safety, and the consideration for the people who are working and what’s involved in it. But I didn’t want to say, ‘Listen to this. This is a big political issue.’ It really was, ‘Here’s what happened. He