Caroline Shaw facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Caroline Shaw
Shaw in 2020
Born	Caroline Adelaide Shaw (1982-08-01) August 1, 1982 (age 43) Greenville, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation	Composer violinist singer
Notable work	List of compositions

Caroline Adelaide Shaw (born August 1, 1982) is a talented American composer, violinist, and singer. She creates amazing contemporary classical music. In 2013, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her special singing piece called Partita for 8 Voices. Caroline Shaw also won a Grammy Award in 2022 for her work Narrow Sea. She received another Grammy in 2025 for Rectangles and Circumstance.

Caroline Shaw's Early Life

Caroline Adelaide Shaw was born on August 1, 1982. Her hometown is Greenville, North Carolina. She started playing the violin when she was just two years old. Her mother, Jon, who was also a violinist and singer, taught her using the Suzuki method.

Caroline was influenced by the music at her local Episcopal church. She loved listening to the organist play music by Bach. When she was young, she would call a classical music radio station. She would ask them to play a specific piece, like a duet from The Magic Flute. Then, she would get ready to record it on a cassette tape. If they played the wrong song, she would call back to correct them!

She began writing her own music at age 10. Most of her early pieces were inspired by the chamber music of famous composers like Mozart and Brahms.

Education and Musical Training

When Caroline went to university, she focused mainly on playing the violin. She wanted to become a musician in an orchestra or a small music group. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from Rice University in 2004.

After that, she received a special scholarship called the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship in 2004-2005. She then completed her master's degree in violin from Yale University in 2007. In 2010, she started a PhD program in composition at Princeton University.

Caroline Shaw's Music Career

When she was 30 years old, Caroline Shaw became the youngest person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. This was for her piece Partita for 8 Voices. The judges praised her work as "highly polished and inventive." It was an a cappella piece, meaning it was sung without instruments. It used speech, whispers, sighs, and other cool vocal sounds.

The work has four parts, like a dance suite from the Baroque period. These parts are called Allemande, Sarabande, Courante, and Passacaglia. The group Roomful of Teeth, which includes Caroline Shaw, recorded the piece. It was released on October 30, 2012.

Performing and Collaborating

Caroline Shaw is also a talented performer. She plays the violin with a group called the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). She also sings with Roomful of Teeth. She has worked with many other musical groups and artists.

She was a musician in residence at Dumbarton Oaks in 2014. She was also a composer in residence with Music on Main in Vancouver, Canada, until 2016. One of her pieces, The Evergreen, was inspired by a tree in Bluffs Park on Galiano Island.

Many groups have performed Caroline Shaw's music. These include Roomful of Teeth, So Percussion, the Brentano String Quartet, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. In 2016, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra asked her to write a piece called The Baltimore Bomb. They performed it as part of their 100th anniversary.

In 2018, several organizations asked Caroline Shaw to write two new pieces. These were Second Essay: Echo and Third Essay: Ruby. The Calidore String Quartet performed them for the first time in London. These pieces followed her 2016 work, First Essay: Nimrod. Shaw said Nimrod was influenced by a book and the 2016 US presidential election. She explained that Echo refers to the 'echo' function in computer programming and physical echoes. Ruby is named after the Ruby programming language and the gemstone.

In 2023, Caroline Shaw's Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings was performed for the first time. Byron Schenkman played the harpsichord in Seattle, Washington.

Music for Movies and TV

Caroline Shaw has also composed music for films and TV shows. Her work has been featured in the soundtracks for movies like Tár (2022) and The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018). She also wrote original music for films such as To Keep the Light and Madeline's Madeline (2018). Her music was also in the series Fleishman Is in Trouble. In 2024, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her music in Ken Burns' PBS documentary series, Leonardo da Vinci.

Working with Other Artists

Caroline Shaw has collaborated with famous artists outside of classical music. In 2015, rapper Kanye West released a remix of his song "Say You Will." Caroline Shaw helped produce it and added her unique vocals. She also sang on "Wolves" and "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2" from West's album The Life of Pablo.

In the early 2020s, Caroline Shaw teamed up with singer/songwriter Danni Lee. They formed an electronic pop duo called Ringdown. Their album Lady on a Bike was released in 2025.

Selected Music Albums

Caroline Shaw has released several albums of her own music. Here are some of them:

See also

In Spanish: Caroline Shaw para niños