Leilehua Lanzilotti Named a Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music
with eyes the color of time, by Leilehua Lanzilotti (2023 AIR), which premiered on August 6, 2021 at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York, is a vibrant composition "inspired by works in The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu that distinctly combines experimental string textures and episodes of melting lyricism." The piece was nominated and named a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music.
with eyes the color of time
By Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti
Commissioned by the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, duration 32’
The titles of the movements in this piece refer to works of art that were featured in The Contemporary Museum (Spalding House) in Honolulu when it first opened: George Rickey’s kinetic sculpture Two Open Triangles Up, Gyratory III (1988), Deborah Butterfield’s Nahele (1986), James Seawright’s Mirror XV (1987), Toshiko Takaezu’s moons (a series of sculptures she often referred to by the Hawaiian word, mahina), and David Hockney’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges (originally conceived as a set for the opera by Maurice Ravel of the same name). The title of the entire work, with eyes the color of time, comes from a phrase in the Ravel opera. The main movements are framed by interludes referencing the bronze doors at the entrance of the museum which had silhouettes of women in them (by Robert Graham).
Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) musician dedicated to the arts of our time. A "leading composer-performer" (The New York Times), Lanzilotti is the recipient of a 2020 Native Launchpad Artist Award, a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Award, and 2021 McKnight Visiting Composer Residency. Her “conceptually potent” compositions often deal with unique instrument-objects, such as The Noguchi Museum commissions involving sound sculptures. “Lanzilotti’s score brings us together across the world in remembrance, through the commitment of shared sonic gestures.” (Cities & Health) Lanzilotti’s recent commissions include a new work for the [Switch~ Ensemble], the development and performance of which is supported by a project grant from the MAP Fund, a string quartet for Argus Quartet and a new work for the GRAMMY-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth supported in part by the National Science Foundation.
As a recording artist, Lanzilotti has played on albums from Björk's Vulnicura Live and Joan Osborne's Love and Hate, to Dai Fujikura's Chance Monsoon and David Lang’s anatomy theater. Lanzilotti’s upcoming solo performance projects include Wayfinder—a new viola concerto by Dai Fujikura inspired by Polynesian wayfinding. in manus tuas—Lanzilotti’s solo viola album debut—was featured in Steve Smith’s Log Journal Playlist (Live life out Loud), Bandcamp’s Best Contemporary Classical Albums of 2019, and The Boston Globe’s Top 10 classical albums of 2019, and was called “an entrancing new album” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross.
To reach new audiences and share contemporary music and art, Lanzilotti has had a multifaceted career. She has published articles in Music & Literature and Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and written program notes for the London Symphony Orchestra. Lanzilotti's dissertation is an analysis of Andrew Norman’s The Companion Guide to Rome showing the influence of architecture and visual art on the work. As an extension of the research, she created Shaken Not Stuttered, a free online resource demonstrating extended techniques for strings. Lanzilotti has also worked as a producer and curator, recently as the Curator of Music at EMPAC. As an educator, Lanzilotti has been on the faculty at New York University, University of Northern Colorado (where she was also the director of the contemporary music ensemble), Casalmaggiore International Music Festival, and Point CounterPoint Music Festival. Lanzilotti was recently appointed Director of Community Engagement for Hawaiʻi Contemporary, connecting Hawaiʻi and the Pacific through contemporary art, and is a lecturer in both Composition & Viola at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa.
Dr. Lanzilotti studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Yale School of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. In addition, Lanzilotti was an orchestral fellow in the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the New World Symphony. She participated in the Lucerne Festival Academy under Pierre Boulez, and was the original violist in the Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble. Her mentors include Hiroko Primrose, Peter Slowik, Jesse Levine, Martin Bresnick, Wilfried Strehle, Karen Ritscher, and Reiko Füting.
Featured Artist
