Anthracite Fields

Dark mine shafts, toiling workers and ... electric guitars? With Anthracite Fields, Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Wolfe presents a monumental tribute to Pennsylvania’s mineworkers. This raw, hypnotic oratorio weaves archive texts, interviews and industrial sounds into a musical memory that is as confronting as it is bewitching.

Julia Wolfe takes you to the coalmines of Pennsylvania, near the town where she grew up, in a place that the composer experienced as the Wild West for a long time. Her poignant Anthracite Fields honours the miners and their families who literally fuelled America’s wealth for decades, at the cost of their own health. Electric guitars growl like heavy machinery, repetitive rhythms mimic the monotonous labour, and lyrical vocal lines give the forgotten workers a voice. From the young breaker boys to union leader John L. Lewis, this music feels urgent, exciting and surprisingly topical.

For this compelling work for choir and augmented ensemble, the Vlaams Radiokoor and Bart Van Reyn join forces with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, for whom Wolfe wrote the piece in 2014. Together, they prove that all the acclaim and the prestigious Pulitzer Prize were well deserved.