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UNCG alumna Rhiannon Giddens awarded Pulitzer Prize in Music

Rhiannon Giddens at a concert rehearsal in 2018. Giddens has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Music for "Omar," an opera she co-wrote with Michael Abels. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Rhiannon Giddens at a concert rehearsal in 2018. Giddens has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Music for "Omar," an opera she co-wrote with Michael Abels.  (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Rhiannon Giddens, who studied music as a graduate student at UNC Greensboro, will receive the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music for the opera “Omar,” which she co-wrote with Michael Abels. According to a university news release, the work explores the life of Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim who was enslaved in the Carolinas in the 19th century.

The Pulitzer committee released a statement saying the opera expands “the language of the operatic form while conveying the humanity of those condemned to bondage.”

Giddens, a two-time Grammy winner, received a MacArthur “Genius” grant in 2017.

The opera “Omar” premiered at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival in 2022, less than a mile from where Said was sold. It has since been performed in several U.S. cities. 

Giddens is scheduled to return to Greensboro for a performance at the Carolina Theater in September.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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