The Score| Country of Immigrants

At the heart of Julia Wolfe’s oratorio Fire in my mouth is the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in which 146 garment workers, most of them young immigrant women, perished. The multimedia work gained unanticipated relevance at its world premiere in January, coming during the U.S. government shutdown over immigration policy. Fire in my mouth was the centerpiece of the New York Philharmonic’s “New York Stories: Threads of Our City” events, which explored the city’s enduring role as a beacon for immigrants with two weeks of concerts and activities that included tours of former immigrants’ apartments at the Tenement Museum, online discussions by the orchestra’s current musicians of their own migrations and cultural heritage, chamber music by composers influenced by their time in America, and an archival exhibit. Music Director Jaap van Zweden led the premiere of Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth, which evokes the fears and hopes of immigrants in the early twentieth century as well as the horror of the factory fire. Protests and actions by the surviving women, many of whom were Jewish and Italian immigrants, led to workplace safety reform. The Philharmonic co-commissioned the piece with Cal Performances, the Krannert Center, and the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan. The chorus comprised 146 women and girls—the number of workers who died in the fire—from the chamber choir The Crossing and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.