SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE: Caroline Shaw Is Firing on All Creative Cylinders
SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE: Caroline Shaw Is Firing on All Creative Cylinders
BY VICTORIA LOOSELEAF
“Not only does Shaw seem to be embracing her life post-Pulitzer, she is also on a musical tear. Last April her recording Orange, performed by the Attacca Quartet, was released by New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records and is the first full-length album to exclusively feature works by Shaw. A love letter to the string quartet, the release is receiving rave reviews, with NPR placing it on its “Best Albums of 2019 So Far” list. I spoke with Shaw by phone in a conversation that included her approach to commissions, her attraction to hip-hop and the dream she has of one day working with choreographer Mark Morris. But first came that ubiquitous subject — the Pulitzer Prize, with the award citation praising Shaw’s Partita as ‘a highly polished and inventive a cappella work uniquely embracing speech, whispers, sighs, murmurs, wordless melodies, and novel vocal effects.’"