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Readjusting Your Reality: Ellen Reid Wins Music Pulitzer For 'P r i s m'

The young composer's opera, which debuted at the Los Angeles Opera, was inspired by her own experience as a survivor of sexual assault.
Ellen Reid's opera <em>p r i s m</em> has won this year's Pulitzer Prize for music.

Ellen Reid, a 36-year-old composer, won the Pulitzer Prize in Music on Monday for her opera p r i s m. The Pulitzer jury described the winning piece as a "bold new operatic work that uses sophisticated vocal writing and striking instrumental timbres to confront difficult subject matter: the effects of sexual and emotional abuse." The two other finalists were Sustain, an orchestral work by Andrew Norman, and Still for solo piano by James Romig. Reid is the fourth woman to earn the prize since 2013.

Reid's music in is set to a libretto by Roxie Perkins. The work, co-produced with Beth Morrison Projects, premiered November 29 at the Los Angeles

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