Tyshawn Sorey leads a rehearsal of his Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) at the Rothko Chapel in Houston in 2022. Photo by Scott Dalton/Dacamera.
In Tuesday’s (5/7) National Public Radio, Nate Chinen reports, “Last year, the resolutely nonconformist composer, educator and percussionist Tyshawn Sorey was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music … But that doesn’t mean he had any expectations for this year’s award. ‘I’m still sitting here shocked beyond belief,’ he told NPR Music on Monday afternoon, about an hour after his composition Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith) was announced as the Pulitzer winner for 2024…. Sorey, 43, is a feverishly prolific creative force who maintains overlapping profiles in the realms of both improvisational music (‘jazz,’ though he doesn’t use the term) and classical new music…. Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith) [was] commissioned by Lucerne Festival and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra … The piece features an alto saxophone soloist, with a woodwind cohort of two flutes (alto and bass); two English horns, or cor anglais; two bassoons; and two clarinets … There are also two trumpets, two bass trombones, a timpanist, and a 21-piece string ensemble…. The Pulitzer based its award on the [work’s] American premiere at Atlanta Symphony Hall last year. Its world premiere took place at the Lucerne Festival … Along with Sorey, this year’s Pulitzer finalists for music were Mary Kouyoumdjian … and Felipe Lara.”
