Julia Wolfe has been appointed the Inaugural Festival Director at Cincinnati’s prestigious May Festival for their 151st year. In the newly created role, Wolfe will curate the festival's program to "[exhibit] the full breadth of the chorus as a musical medium."

On being appointed, Wolfe said, “I am thrilled to be working with the forward-looking May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to bring powerful musical narratives to the historic May Festival. Pairing new with old, the works resonate together across time and space to share the powerful vehicle of music – expressing who we were and who we are today.”

The 2024 May Festival will begin on Friday, May 17, and will feature Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, Her Story, and Pretty, in addition to the World Premiere of her new choral fanfare, All that breathes, composed especially for the Festival. The festival program will also include fellow Ricordi composers Michael Gordon's Natural History and David Lang's the national anthems.

Read more from the May Festival here.

Performances

18 May (WP)
All that breathes for choir (WP)
Pretty for orchestra
May Festival Chorus, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Stephanie Childress (cond.)

23 May
Anthracite Fields for ensemble
May Festival Chorus, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Teddy Abrams (cond.)

25 May
Her Story for choir & orchestra
Lorelei Ensemble, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Francois Lopez-Ferrer (cond.)