A founding member of the seminal Bang On a Can ensemble, Julia Wolfe grew to become one of American classical music’s foremost composers, curators, and educators in the early 21st century. Born in 1958 and raised in Philadelphia, she cultivated a dual background in music and theater that influenced the dramatic bent of many of her works. These include the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning choral piece Anthracite Fields, focused on her home state’s coal-mining industry, and 2019’s explosive Fire in my mouth, exploring the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Other landmark works borrow source material and aesthetic signifiers from funk music (“Lick”), folk (the Pentangle-inspired “Cruel Sister,” “LAD”), and rock (string quartets like “Dig Deep”).