Musical documentary with Rochester roots gets a Pulitzer Prize nod

Paper Pianos, written and co-created by the International Theatre Program's Nigel Maister, tells the story of an Afghan musician and refugee Milad Yousufi.

A live-performance musical documentary written and co-created by University of Rochester International Theatre Program Artistic Director Nigel Maister was named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize on Monday.

The work, Paper Pianos, a documentary-based, music-theatre hybrid, was described by the prize committee as a "socially urgent multimedia work that boldly melds music and audio documentary with first-person stories of refugees, exploring how music serves as solace and inspiration under conditions of displacement."

Paper Pianos was specifically recognized by the prize committee for its music, which was composed by Mary Kouyoumdjian, a composer and documentarian with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores.

The Pulitzer Prize for Music, which recognizes distinguished musical composition by an American and premiered in the previous year, went to Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith), by Tyshawn Sorey.

The music for Paper Pianos was performed by Alarm Will Sound, a musical ensemble founded by Eastman School of Music alumni. (Image courtesy of Nigel Maister)

For Paper Pianos, Kouyoumdjian and Maister, the Russell and Ruth Peck Artistic Director of the International Theatre Program, interviewed the protagonists of the documentary in Rochester and New York City. Their field recordings and Maister's text formed the basis of the documentary's narrative, which was interwoven with a live musical performance and intricate hand-drawn animations that depicted the dramatic emotional landscape of the displacement and resettlement of refugees.

The work's narrative revolves around Afghan pianist Milad Yousufi, who fled to New York from Kabul, where the Taliban threatened death for pursuing music. The documentary takes its title from Yousufi's story of teaching himself to play the piano in silence by painting piano keys on paper and hearing the music he was making only in his mind.

Maister was far from the only University connection to the piece.

When the work premiered in February 2023 at EMPAC, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York, it was stage managed by alumnus Michael Wizorek '22 and its lighting was designed by Seth Reiser, an adjunct lecturer in the International Theatre Program.

The music was performed by Alarm Will Sound, an acclaimed contemporary musical ensemble founded by graduates of the Eastman School of Music.

Paper Pianos is scheduled to launch in New York City in spring 2025 and later tour several venues across the United States.

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