CAROLINE SHAW Entr ’ acte
“ I guess I ’ d like people to be able to forget a lot of things and just enjoy the beauty of harmony and melody for a moment .” – Shaw
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Born 1982 in Greenville , NC
• Caroline Shaw began playing music at age seven , and her mother was her first teacher . She began writing music at age ten , imitating the styles of Mozart and Beethoven .
• Shaw received a Bachelor of Music from Rice University and a Master of Music from Yale University in violin performance . She went on to earn a doctorate from Princeton University in composition .
• At age 30 , Shaw became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music with her work Partita for 8 Voices .
• Her works have been performed by every major U . S . symphony orchestra , and collaborators have included Kanye West .
ABOUT THE PIECE
• Shaw composed Entr ’ acte in 2011 after hearing a performance of a Haydn string quartet .
• The piece riffs on classical form but through an unusual lens . She says of the piece , “ I love the way some music suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice ’ s looking glass , in a kind of absurd , subtle , technicolor transition .”
THE WORLD AT A GLANCE
2011
MUSIC Rihanna ’ s “ We Found Love ”
FILM The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
LITERATURE Tina Fey ’ s Bossypants
SCIENCE The world ’ s first artificial organ transplant
HISTORY The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
BSO SESSIONS | JANUARY 2021
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