Julia Wolfe

The Pulitzer-winning, MacArthur "genius" co-founder of Bang on a Can looks for the grit in music, whether she's writing a string quartet or one of her history-based oratorios.

The New York composer is one of 23 individuals picked this year for the prestigious annual prize, which comes with $625,000.

Wolfe has just released the recording of Anthracite Fields, which won the 2015 Pulitzer for music. The piece is based on the knotty history of coal-mining families in her home state of Pennsylvania.

The Mendelssohn Club Choir mounted its biggest-ever production last April, 2014 with the premiere of Anthracite Fields by the cutting-edge composer Julia…

The composer is the second from the New York music collective Bang on a Can to win the award with a choral work. Her oratorio explores the lives of coal miners and their families a century ago.

Jim Cotter speaks with Dirk Brosse, the newly appointed music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.Susan Lewis visits Friend or Faux, an…