MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Music & the Arts

April 22, 2019 • 10:05 am Comments Off on Finding a Way Back to the Garden: Caroline Shaw’s Music for String Quartet

Finding a Way Back to the Garden: Caroline Shaw’s Music for String Quartet

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Caroline Shaw image (c)Kait Moreno

The May-June issue of STRINGS magazine has just come out, with my cover story on Caroline Shaw and her music for string quartet.

to the issue

Filed under: Caroline Shaw, profile, string quartet, Strings

February 11, 2019 • 8:21 am Comments Off on New Concertos by Caroline Shaw and Kinan Azmeh at Seattle Symphony

New Concertos by Caroline Shaw and Kinan Azmeh at Seattle Symphony

Caroline Shaw

Caroline Shaw, Jonathan Biss, and Ludovic Morlot with Seattle Symphony; photo (c) Brandon Patoc

My coverage of recent world premieres by Caroline Shaw and Kinan Azmeh has now been posted at Musical America.

SEATTLE—As Ludovic Morlot’s final season at the helm of the Seattle Symphony gets closer to the final stretch, his legacy of nurturing new music is coming into sharper relief. The SSO’s last two programs in particular—otherwise so strikingly different in character and mood—each unveiled commissions that took the form of brand-new concertos of genuine distinction: Watermark, Caroline Shaw’s score for pianist Jonathan Biss; and a moving work composed by and for the brilliant clarinetist Kinan Azmeh.

Silk Road Ensemble

Kinan Azmeh with Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot premiering his new Clarinet Concerto; photo (c) Brandon Patoc

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Filed under: Caroline Shaw, Kinan Azmeh, Ludovic Morlot, new music, Seattle Symphony, Silk Road Project

January 31, 2019 • 12:51 pm Comments Off on Caroline Shaw’s New Piano Concerto Premieres in Seattle

Caroline Shaw’s New Piano Concerto Premieres in Seattle

Very excited–especially after getting a foretaste in rehearsal–to hear the world premiere tonight of super-talented Caroline Shaw’s Watermark, her piano concerto for Jonathan Biss.

Check out the video above for the composer in a master class on her own music. And here’s an interview from yesterday with KING-FM’s Dave Beck on Watermark.

Filed under: Caroline Shaw, commissions, pianists, Seattle Symphony

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