Phoenix Based Poet Judith G. Wolf To Be Honored With Top Award

By: Feb. 26, 2020
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Phoenix Based Poet Judith G. Wolf To Be Honored With Top Award

Following her 2019 Grammy winning collaboration with composer Kenneth Fuchs for Poems for Life, local poet Dr. Judith G. Wolf will now be recognized with the Arizona Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters top honor, the Medallion of Merit. Dr. Wolf is being honored for her contributions to the arts including developing young visual and performing artists and showcasing their work to inspire confidence, promote expression and achieve recognition from the community-at-large.

Wolf will be joined by fellow 2020 honorees, The Herberger Theatre Center (Arts Advocacy Organization,) Mollie Trivers (Arts Advocacy Individual) and Dale Dreyfoos (Arts Educator) at the awards ceremony held March 22, 2020 at 6:00 pm at the Paradise Valley Country Club.

The Arizona-based poet is known for her work combining poetry and music and its healing effects, and is involved in multiple projects including serving as President/CEO of Young Arts Arizona Ltd. which seeks to improve children's lives through the visual arts, and serving on multiple Board of Trustees including HonorHealth Foundation, The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Arizona Opera.

Wolf's published poetry collections include Tidbits - A Pleasing and Not So Pleasing Morsel of Life, Otherwise: Poems about Life, and Weeping Shadows. Her latest collection I Hate Being in Love Alone will be published in April 2020.

In addition, Wolf will debut her next musical collaboration, Father's Song with composer Clint Borzoni later this year. The piece will be performed by Bass-Baritone, Christian Pursell in December 2020 with Musica Marin in San Francisco.

Wolf's passion for lyrics, music and poetry has its roots in opera, as she was the Executive Director of the Greater Buffalo Opera Company in New York, then a supporter of choral, symphonic and opera organizations in Arizona. She has 3 published books of poetry, and her piece, Father's Song, was selected by Borzoni, due to its tender text which follow a father's thoughts watching his son develop from birth to manhood.

"I've always been interested in emotional development and healing and find when we connect as humans, particularly through the arts, amazing healing occurs. We have such universal emotions and experiences, and whether you are a new father, a widow, or a young child trying to fit in, somehow we've all been there," says Wolf.
In 2019, composer Kenneth Fuch's won a Grammy for Best Classical Compendium, which used Wolf's Poems of Life as part of the "Spiritualist" album. The poetry, described by critics as "operatic" includes sections titled "Gary Died," "Just Like That," "Time Slips Away" and "The Retreat."

"Bringing the musical component to my work is the most gratifying. Either through a song cycle or an operatic aria, when a feeling or idea is underscored with a musical melody that has tremendous ability to evoke what I'm trying to express. From melancholy to the heights of euphoria, this is the most powerful connection an artist can make."



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