“Lanzilotti’s score brings us together across the world in remembrance, through the commitment of shared sonic gestures.”

— Cities & Health

Leilehua Lanzilotti is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) composer / sound artist dedicated to the arts of our time. A “leading composer-performer" (The New York Times), Lanzilotti’s work is characterized by expansive explorations of timbre. Lanzilotti’s practice explores radical indigenous contemporaneity by integrating community engagement and ways of knowing into the heart of projects.

Lanzilotti was honored to be a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music for with eyes the color of time (string orchestra), which the Pulitzer committee called, “a vibrant composition . . . that distinctly combines experimental string textures and episodes of melting lyricism.”

Previous honors include a 2023 MacGeorge Fellowship as University Guest Academic within Fine Arts and Music at University of Melbourne, 2021 McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum, a MAP Fund grant for [Switch~ Ensemble] for development and performance of hānau ka ua, a National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund grant for ahupuaʻa, a Native Launchpad Artist Award, an OPERA America: Discovery Grant, the New World Symphony BLUE (Build, Learn, Understand and Experiment) Alumni Award, a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, an Empowering ʻŌiwi Leadership Award (E OLA), and a First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow among other accolades.