In Conversation: Caroline Shaw with Will Robin

Friday, April 17, 2015 | 3:00 pm

In Conversation: Caroline Shaw with Will Robin

North Carolina Symphony Scholar-in-Residence, Will Robin, also a doctoral candidate in musicology at UNC-Chapel Hill and a regular contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker, will talk with composer, vocalist, violinist, violist, and NC native Caroline Shaw — the youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer for music — about her career as a musician and composer, as well as her musical influences. Shaw will be joined by the members of A.C.M.E. American Contemporary Music Ensemble to perform musical samples.

Friday, April 17, 3 PM
Biddle Music Building, Room 104, Duke University East Campus, Durham
Free & open to the public

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A.C.M.E. American Contemporary Music Ensemble, “contemporary music dynamos” (NPR), perform a program of chamber music by Caroline Shaw, 2013 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music. A composer, vocalist, violinist, violist, and NC native, Shaw was, at 30 years old, the youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer for music; she performs as a member of A.C.M.E., as well as the new music vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth.

The centerpiece of this special Duke Performances program is Shaw’s 30-minute Ritornello for string quartet, which is performed alongside a film made by the composer and inspired by architecture, memory, and the tale of Rip Van Winkle. Of Ritornello, Shaw says, “[it] evokes the notion of time folding in on itself, repeating and forgetting and unfolding again.” The program also includes Entr’acte, which Shaw wrote for the Brentano Quartet, as well By & By, which features settings and lyrics from old gospel tunes with vocals by Shaw.