Amplify (Sarasota Orchestra co-commission)

Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Michael Abels’ music has reached worldwide audiences via his GRAMMY®-nominated scores for the Jordan Peele films Get Out, Us, and Nope. The score for Us won multiple critics’ awards and was named “Score of the Decade” by TheWrap. Both Us and Nope were shortlisted in the Oscars' Best Original Score category. His score for the HBO docuseries Allen v. Farrow received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Score and Main Title. Most recently, he scored the 2024 Lucasfilm series The Acolyte for Disney+.

Abels’ orchestral music is no less acclaimed, with his 2023 opera Omar, co-composed with Rhiannon Giddens, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Omar was hailed by The New York Times as "an ideal of an American sound" and among the ten best classical music performances of 2022. Abels’ works have been performed by major American orchestras for more than 30 years, and he co-founded of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group whose goal is to increase the visibility of composers of color in film, gaming, and streaming media.

Amplify was co-commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival, and Sarasota Orchestra, and was premiered by the Detroit Symphony on June 5, 2025. The work was inspired by Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and explores the idea of music’s power as propaganda. Tchaikovsky’s Overture was originally composed to celebrate the completion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which had been constructed to commemorate Russia’s defense against Napoleon’s army in the war of 1812. Yet the work is now performed by orchestras across the United States to celebrate Independence Day and other patriotic American events. Abels melds the style of Tchaikovsky with some recognizable American melodies to create a similar patriotic propaganda work reflecting today’s world. Described by Abels as “a fun way to look at some complex ideas,” Amplify explores the power of music to stir our thoughts and emotions and influence the perspective and beliefs that we hold about the world in which we live.