Gabriela Lena Frank has won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her orchestral piece Picaflor: A future myth. Co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, and Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Picaflor was premiered by Marin Alsop and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2025, with performances in both Philadelphia and Vail. The West Coast Premiere takes place October 8-11, 2026 with Giancarlo Guerrero conducting the Oregon Symphony.
Read Gabriela's exclusive interview with NPR on her Pulitzer win.
"Picaflor: A future myth is an original story born of my fancy, told in the language of a fable," notes the composer in her program note. "It draws on the mythology of Andean Perú, the object of my lifelong fascination – The existence of a sky kingdom under the dominion of a creator sun god, and a mischievous hummingbird, the 'picaflor,' who leaves the kingdom by ripping the sky." The story also draws on the existence of personages such as the chaski, the runner from the pre-Conquest Tawantinsuyu Empire who delivered messages along the Inca Road. All are portrayed against the backdrop of pachacuti, the longstanding indigenous belief that cataclysmic changes of era-worlds occur every several hundred years.
"What happens, I wonder, when we imagine these ideas as taking place in the future rather than the past? And in a future that will bear the mark of our attitudes towards Mother Earth? How do mythologies change in such a future? As a generational daughter of indigenous Perú, Picaflor is what has stirred inside me, musically rendered here for the symphony orchestra."
Across 10 continuous movements, Picaflor: A future myth is an original musical fable, rooted in both ancient Andean mythology and contemporary American ecopolitics. Gabriela Lena Frank has explored both these themes extensively over her career, as a both composer of Peruvian ancestry and a native Californian who is annually confronted by the specter of catastrophic wildfire.
The piece is dedicated to Kaija Saariaho, who passed away as Frank was working on the piece. In its daring lines, ethereal textures, and enveloping drama, Frank has crafted a moving and apt tribute to one of the great composers of her era.
For more information, please contact Andrew Stein-Zeller.
