Entr’acte
Caroline Shaw
About the Music
Arguably one of the most significant members of the contemporary classical composition landscape, Caroline Shaw was born 1982 in Greenville, NC. Her mother, a singer and violin teacher, was her first mentor, and got her started playing the violin at the age of two on a 64th size violin. According to Shaw, she “fell in love with classical music watching Amadeus over and over again.” She began exploring the world of composition at the age of ten, and got her start by imitating the chamber music of Mozart and Brahams. Shaw holds degrees from Rice and Yale in violin performance, and a PhD in composition from Princeton. Currently she is a member of the faculty at NYU and a Creative Associate at Juilliard.
Shaw has made a name for herself as a composer, singer, violinist, and producer, who actively performs in solo and collaborative projects around the world. In 2013, she became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music when she won for Partita for 8 voices, which she wrote for the Grammy-winning group Roomful of Teeth (of whom she is a member). Additionally she is the recipient of several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. In the last decade she has written over 100 works for Anne Sofie von Otter, Yo Yo Ma, Renée Flemming, Dawn Upshaw, LA Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Dover Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Vail Dance Festival, The Crossing and many others. As a producer she has collaborated on albums by Rosalía, Woodkid, and Nas; and as a vocalist/composer she has appeared in several films, tv series, and podcasts including “The Humans,” “Bombshell,” “Yellowjackets,” “Maid,” and “Beyonce’s Homecoming.” Her 2022 projects include the scores for tv, theater, ballet, and symphonic orchestra, in addition to tours with So Percussion and chamber music appearances as a violist for the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and the La Jolla Music Society.
Shaw wrote Entr’Acte in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 quartet. On Entr’Acte she writes, “It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form, but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.” Originally written for string quartet, tonight you will hear the work for chamber orchestra.
Note by Christina Dioguardi