Finalist: Place, by Ted Hearne

Ted Hearne (b.1982, Chicago) is a composer, singer, bandleader and recording artist.

The New York Times has praised Hearne for his "tough edge and wildness of spirit," and "topical, politically sharp-edged works." Pitchfork called his work "some of the most expressive socially engaged music in recent memory -- from any genre," and Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Hearne's music "holds up as a complex mirror image of an information-saturated, mass-surveillance world, and remains staggering in its impact."

Hearne's music invites ambiguity and inquiry, often while engaging with texts that are both contemporary and politicized. 'Sound From the Bench' (The Crossing, 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist), a work for choir, electric guitars and drums about 'corporate personhood' sets texts from ventriloquism manuals alongside U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments from 'Citizens United.' Hearne's oratorio 'The Source' (BAM Next Wave 2014, SF Opera, LA Opera) sets classified U.S. Department of Defense cables from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars alongside the words of Chelsea Manning, the U.S. Army Private who leaked those documents to WikiLeaks.

Hearne's ongoing collaboration with legendary musician Erykah Badu pairs new original music with arrangements of Badu’s works for orchestra, into an evening-length work most recently presented with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming collaborations include 'In Your Mouth' with poet Dorothea Lasky and director Daniel Fish commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Liquid Music and The Walker Art Center, and a new orchestral collaboration with performance artist and singer-songwriter Taylor Mac.

Hearne is on the composition faculty at University of Southern California. His works have been conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams and Gustavo Dudamel, and commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, Ensemble Dal Niente and Roomful of Teeth.

 'Place,' a meditation on gentrification and displacement written with poet Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor, was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Beth Morrison Projects and has been nominated in two categories for the 2021 Grammy Awards.