Tag: MacArthur

Julia Wolfe Named 2016 MacArthur Fellow

Julia Wolfe is among the 23 recipients of 2016 MacArthur Fellowships. She was recognized for the creation of music that “combines influences from folk, classical, and rock genres in works that are grounded in historical and legendary narratives. Often described as post-minimalist, Wolfe demonstrates an openness to sonic possibilities, with choral elements and instruments such as the mountain dulcimer, bagpipes, and body percussion often augmenting string and orchestral arrangements.”

The Bang on a Can co-founder and co­–artistic director is noted for the integration of music, movement, and visual elements in her work. Currently associate professor of music composition at the Steinhardt School at New York University, Wolfe won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her piece Anthracite Fields, which explored the complex history of the coal mining industry.

The MacArthur Fellowship is a “no strings attached” award that comes with a stipend of $625,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years. More information about the 2016 MacArthur fellows and the awarding process is available on the MacArthur Foundation website.

MacArthur’s Creative and Effective Institutions and Bielecki Foundation Awards Announced

MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions
MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions

The Chicago Jazz Philharmonic and eighth blackbird among those to receive MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions

Fourteen Chicago arts organizations have been named as recipients of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, which recognizes “exceptional nonprofit organizations that are engaged in the foundation’s core fields of work and helps ensure their long-term sustainability.” The award, presented annually since 2006 to organizations around the world that demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness, provides each organization with $200,000 to $1 million, depending on the size of its budget.

In the area of music, the 2016 recipients are:

This year’s recipients are drawn exclusively from Chicago’s arts and culture community in order to strengthen the city’s vibrant cultural life and underscore the foundation’s commitment to its hometown.

The foundation does not seek or accept nominations for these awards.

Learn more about these and other MacArthur projects.

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Ingrid Laubrock and Pauline Oliveros

Ingrid Laubrock and Pauline Oliveros

The Robert D. Bielecki Foundation has presented Pauline Oliveros with a grant of $10,000 towards the completion of “Deep Listening — The Story of Pauline Oliveros” and a $3,000 grant to Ingrid Laubrock in support of her Fall 2016 Intakt Records release.

The Bielecki Foundation seeks to enrich fine art culture while expanding opportunities for individual artist development and audience cultivation. They provide funding to emerging, under-recognized, and deserving artists and organizations across the United States and internationally. There is no application process.

Learn more about Oliveros, Laubrock, and their funded projects.

Hamilton Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Named 2015 MacArthur Fellow

Playwright, composer, and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda, 35, has been named one of 2015’s MacArthur Fellows. The MacArthur Foundation’s website noted that he reimagines “American musical theater in works that fuse traditional storytelling with contemporary musical styles and voices. Well-versed in the structure and history of musical theater, Miranda expands its idiom with the aesthetic of popular culture and stories from individuals and communities new to Broadway stages.”

His critically lauded Hamilton (2015) explores the potential of hip-hop to reframe history. This further develops musical work he delved into with his Tony-winning production In the Heights (2007).

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda
Photo courtesy the MacArthur Foundation.

Lin-Manuel Miranda received a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2002. His other theater credits include co-composer and co-lyricist of Bring It On: The Musical (2011); actor in revivals of tick, tick…BOOM! (2014) and Merrily We Roll Along (2012); new original music for a revival of Working (2012); and the mini-musical, “21 Chump Street,” for This American Life (2014). He is also a member of the improv hip-hop group, Freestyle Love Supreme.

Learn more about Miranda on the MacArthur Foundation’s website.

Mimi Lien Photo courtesy the MacArthur Foundation

Mimi Lien
Photo courtesy the MacArthur Foundation

Mimi Lien, a set designer for theater, opera, and dance who worked on Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 among other immersive sets, was also among this year’s round of 24 fellows.

There are three criteria for selection of fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. The MacArthur Fellowship is a “no strings attached” award which comes with a stipend of $625,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years. The foundation does not require or expect specific products or reports from MacArthur Fellows and does not evaluate recipients’ creativity during the term of the fellowship.

(–from the MacArthur Foundation’s website)

Steve Coleman Awarded 2014 MacArthur “Genius Grant”

Steve Coleman in his Allentown, Pennsylvania, backyard.

Steve Coleman in his Allentown, Pennsylvania, backyard. Image courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Composer and saxophonist Steve Coleman has been named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow.

A total of 21 innovators in a wide variety of disciplines have been singled out this year to receive the award, often referred to as a “genius grant,” which recognizes “exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for significant contributions in the future. Fellows will each receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000, paid out over five years. The fellowship comes with no stipulations or reporting requirements, and allows recipients maximum freedom to follow their own creative visions.”

The MacArthur Foundation noted that Coleman is a musician “whose technical virtuosity and engagement with musical traditions and styles from around the world are expanding the expressive and formal possibilities of spontaneous composition.”
Listen to Coleman, 57, speak about his approach to improvisation, the development of M-Base, and the role of mentorship and community building in his musical life:


Follow Coleman’s work online via his website, Facebook, and Twitter.
More about this year’s class of MacArthur Fellows is available here.