Leilehua Lanzilotti

Musical composition Kanaka Maoli Hawaii
Leilehua Lanzilotti is a composer and sound artist whose work is characterized by expansive explorations of timbre. Lanzilotti’s practice explores radical indigenous contemporaneity, integrating community engagement into the heart of projects. By world-building through multimedia installation works and nontraditional concert experiences/musical interventions, Lanzilotti’s works activate imagination around new paths forward in language sovereignty, water sovereignty, land stewardship, and respect. Uplifting others by crafting projects that support both local communities and economy, the work inspires hope to continue.
Lanzilotti was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music for “with eyes the color of time” (string orchestra), which the Pulitzer committee called “a vibrant composition . . . that distinctly combines experimental string textures and episodes of melting lyricism.” As a 2023 SHIFT – Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts Awardee, Lanzilotti is partnering with Te Ao Mana to provide free hula, language, and cultural workshops, creating space to come together as a community in the week leading up to their new opera project, Liliʻu. These workshops create space to learn and, more importantly, to come together through language and culture, and to celebrate the diaspora.
http://leilehualanzilotti.com