Matt McCue

“We’re not nervous about the large audience. We’re nervous about the history of the song and the expectations that the people of Indiana have for that moment.”

In some ways, the recent furor over Indiana’s RFRA echoed a heated discrimination debate from three decades ago, when the state was previously a battleground in the national culture wars.

She recently became the first American-born composer to win Ireland’s prestigious traditional-music prize, the Cumadoir TG4.