Julia Wolfe

Born: December 18, 1958, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

All that breathes

• Composed: 2024 on commission from the Cincinnati May Festival
  
• Premiere: This May Festival performance is the world premiere of All that breathes.
  
• Instrumentation: SATB chorus
• Duration: approx. 8 minutes

All that breathes was commissioned by and written especially for the May Festival Chorus. It was a wonderful experience to compose for the massive a cappella sound of this large, wonderful chorus. The piece begins with collective breath—inhalation/exhalation—the breathing of one large organism. To the breath, I add singing of text adapted from Genesis: all the creeping things, all the birds, all of human life. Language breaks down into syllabic sounds. We are often removed from thinking about breath, and about life as a whole—that we are connected and dependent upon each other. It’s a simple idea—but we forget. 

—Julia Wolfe