Hawaii violist and composer Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti is finalist for Pulitzer in music

Violist and composer Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti had no idea of the accolades she would receive. So it was a “total surprise” two weeks ago to learn that her composition “with eyes the color of time” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in music.

“It’s like a Beyonce album,” she said, referring to the pop star’s habit of releasing an album without notice. “When it happens, it drops, and you start getting emails from the president of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and from middle school friends, at the same time. It was a total surprise and a complete honor.”

Sponsored by the same organization that awards the prizes for journalism and literature, the Pulitzer Prize is considered one of the most prestigious prizes for the performing arts, with a celebrated list of recipients ranging from classical composer Samuel Barber to jazz artist Ornette Coleman and rapper Kendrick Lamar. This year’s winner is Native American composer Raven Chacon for his organ composition “Voiceless Mass.”

Lanzilotti’s composition, which refers to works of art once on display at the former Contemporary Museum, also known as Spalding House, will be performed in February by the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra. But on Thursday around noon on the grounds of the Honolulu Civic Center, music lovers can enjoy Lanzilotti leading local musicians in a performance of another work, a new piece titled “Sky Gate.” It was inspired by the curvaceous, circular sculpture by Isamu Noguchi and is timed to coincide with the phenomenon known as Lahaina noon, when the sun will be directly overhead.

“On Lahaina noon this magical thing happens where (the Sky Gate) casts a perfect circle,” she said. “Noguchi wanted the sculpture to ‘activate’ the park. The piece I’m doing for this is much more conceptual. The musicians are going to be spread out in the park, and the idea behind ‘activating the park’ is that someone would have to walk around the park to hear more closely what’s going on and be in the space.”

Lanzilotti’s life touches on a variety of interesting and important people in Hawaii’s history. Her great-grandfather was Samuel Wilder King, the 11th territorial governor of Hawaii, and her grandfather was the famous Judge Sam King. Her mother, Louise Lanzilotti, is a longtime host at Hawaii Public Radio. At age 8 she began violin studies with Hiroko Primrose, a prominent proponent of the popular Suzuki method of violin instruction.

Lanzilotti remembers telling her teacher that she “hated” the E string, the highest string on the violin. But Primrose’s husband, William Primrose, was considered the greatest violist of his era, so she recommended a switch to viola, which instead of a high E string has a low C string.

“I just remember the first time I played it what it felt like, just the way it resonated, and it was this incredible sound, and the way it vibrated in my shoulder and my body,” said Lanzilotti, who during her years at Punahou School studied with Iggy Jang, concertmaster of the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra.

Lanzilotti went on to study music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, but coming from Hawaii, she felt somewhat lacking in her knowledge of the European culture that is the underpinning of classical music. “I felt like not only do I have to catch up with Western music, but I don’t even know the context of these things in the same way,” said Lanzilotti, who is part Chinese (along with Hawaiian and Italian) and had studied Asian history here.

She wound up spending many years overseas, pursuing advanced degrees at the Manhattan and Yale schools of music. Her work as a composer and performer has taken her overseas to Germany, Italy, Australia and Thailand, and included a position as curator at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, an arts center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York state. But she’s been an active performer as well, giving concerts and appearing on albums by Bjork and Joan Osborne.

She returned to the islands to work on Hawaii Contemporary’s Triennial arts festival, and is currently teaching at the University of Hawaii Manoa Music Department along with composing and performing. Now that she is home, she treasures her upbringing in Hawaii.

“Only as an adult have I really, really appreciated the unique and deep education that I had in Asian history and Hawaiian history, and understanding all of the richness to growing up in Hawaii,” she said.

Her music is often unconventional, featuring unusual textures and timbres, and she unabashedly admits it is “experimental.” Some of it is related to Hawaii and Hawaiian culture. This summer she will perform a work inspired by Polynesian wayfinding, written by Japanese-born composer Dai Fujikura. She is working on an opera on Queen Lili‘uokalani, basing it on the queen’s diaries, memoir and music.

“I’m looking at different approaches to being a contemporary musician,” she said. “I’m starting to look at a more holistic way of touring, where I can go places and be involved in the community, where I can play some and also have spaces to compose and work within the community and have that more integrated into my practice. In a way the community is the work.”