Luna Pearl Woolf, composer

Meet Luna Pearl

Luna Pearl Woolfappeared on Show 301, recorded in San Francisco, CA, on February 14, 2015.

Program bio for Show 301:

Luna Pearl Woolf (composer) composes music that has been called “blazingly ardent and softly haunting “ by the New York Times. Her innovative collaborations with authors, filmmakers, dancers and musicians tell original stories or grapple with history and current events. In 2014 Woolf received Opera America’s Discovery Grant to develop her new opera, The Pillar. A public workshop-performance of three scenes from the opera was held in September, 2014. Academy Award winning actor Jeremy Irons narrates Woolf’s Angel Heart, a setting of a story by bestselling children’s author Cornelia Funke. Of the work, The New York Times writes: “Ms. Woolf’s atmospheric music serves a different purpose… her compositions add psychological nuances and emotional depth through ever-changing textures. The … ensemble produces a dazzling variety of sounds, from the rich and earthy to the ethereal.” The full project, Angel Heart, a music storybook, is performed by singers Frederica von Stade, Sanford Sylvan, Daniel Taylor, Zheng Cao and Delan, cellist Matt Haimovitz and Uccello, with guest appearances by mandolinists Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg. The album, with artwork by Guillermo Del Toro and Mathew Cullen’s Mirada Studios, has been released in North America on Oxingale Records and looks forward to worldwide release on PentaTone Classics. Recent projects include a 30-minute work of theatrical chamber music commissioned by percussionist Krystina Marcoux for a Banff Center workshop and Montreal premiere. Opera director Brian Staufenbiel collaborates on this dramatic, wordless opera about the surprising revelations of love. In 2015 ECM + and Montreal’s BOP Ensemble will re-mount Woolf’s operatorio, Orpheus on Sappho’s Shore, for soprano, tenor and chamber orchestra. A prolific and imaginative producer, in 2010 Woolf launched Oxingale Music, publishing the works of award-winning contemporary composers such as Lewis Spratlan and David Sanford, and including a range of pieces recorded on Oxingale Records.. As producer of thirteen recordings on Oxingale Records, Woolf has worked closely with performers such as Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley, the Miro quartet and others to release critically acclaimed albums that have been nominated for GRAMMY, JUNO and INDIE awards and frequently appear in the press’s top ten lists, including Amazon’s Best Classical Instrumental Album of the year in 2003. Woolf graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University, having also studied at Oberlin Conservatory, and earned her MA from Smith College. Woolf’s principal composition teachers have included Mario Davidovsky, Augusta Read Thomas, and Lewis Spratlan.