成人论坛

Kate Molleson talks to Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Caroline Shaw

At the age of just 30, in 2013 American composer Caroline Shaw made the headlines when she became the youngest person to win a Pulitzer Prize for her vocal work "Partita for Eight Voices". It's a mind blowing, joyous celebration of every sound and technique the human voice can achieve. The unexpectedly gained Pulitzer could have pigeon-holed Shaw's future career, as a "composer", but central to her identity as a creator is the fact that Shaw regards herself as musician. She's a violinist, a vocalist, producer, and a composer and it's the sum of all these parts that make up the creative impetus for her music. Blending performance with composition, blurring the lines between different musical genres, Shaw has avoided categorisation in the multiplicity of her enthusiasms. She's worked with rappers Kanye West and Nas, and soprano Ren茅e Fleming, and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. Her more than one hundred works encompass classical works, film scores, vocal music, and performing and working collaboratively she continues to engage in a diverse range of multi-media projects.

Shaw's passion for music formed early. Born in North Carolina in 1982, Shaw was taught the Suzuki method of violin by her mother from the age of 2. Her father, a specialist in respiratory disease, was a keen amateur pianist. Shaw grew up in a culture of community music-making, singing in the church choir and summer camp. Formal studies followed at Rice in performance and Yale in composition, after which she undertook a doctoral programme in composition at Princeton.

Plan and Elevation (IV: The Orangery)
And So
Partita for 8 Singers (IV: Passacaglia)
Gustave Le Gray
Entr鈥檃cte (version for String Orchestra)
Valencia
Limestone and Felt
Punctum
Boris Kerner
Thousandth Orange for violin, viola, cello, piano
Fleishman is in Trouble (Beef Lo Mein)
And the Swallow
Partita for 8 Singers (I: Allemande)
To the Hands (Seven Responses project) (excerpt)
Narrow Sea (excerpt)
Its motion keeps
鈥淭he Listeners鈥� (excerpt)
Plan and Elevation (V: The Beech Tree)
Three Essays (III: Ruby)
The Isle (excerpt)
Taxidermy
Blueprint for String Quartet
To the Sky
Partita for 8 Singers (II: Sarabande)
Fleishman is in Trouble (excerpts)
Ritornello 2.sq.2.j.a for string quartet

Presented by Kate Molleson
Produced by Johannah Smith for 成人论坛 Audio Wales and West

For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Caroline Shaw /programmes/m001trhs

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we鈥檝e featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z