Allen Shawn
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Allen Evan Shawn (born August 27, 1948)<ref name="marriage">Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008</ref> is an American composer, pianist, educator, and author based in Vermont.
His musicEdit
Shawn began composing at the age of ten, but dates his mature work from 1977. He has written a dozen orchestral works, including a symphony, two piano concertos, a cello concerto, and a violin concerto; three chamber operas; five piano sonatas and many additional works for piano; and a large catalogue of chamber music, songs and choral music. Among Shawn's available recordings are several of chamber music, four CDs of piano music, including a CD devoted to his piano work by German pianist Julia Bartha, a piano concerto performed by Ursula Oppens with the Albany Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Alan Miller, and the chamber opera The Music Teacher, with a libretto by his brother, Wallace Shawn.
As authorEdit
Shawn is the author of a book about Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, Arnold Schoenberg's Journey, and a book about Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician.
He is also the author of Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life, which examines his experiences with anxiety and panic disorder, as well as his relationship with his autistic twin sister Mary,<ref>Shawn, Allen. Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life (New York: Viking, 2007)</ref> and Twin: A Memoir, also about Mary and his relationship with her.<ref>Shawn, Allen. Twin: A Memoir (New York: Viking, 2011)</ref> He discussed Twin with Terry Gross on WHYY's Fresh Air on January 3, 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
Shawn is a son of The New Yorker editor William Shawn, and the brother of the actor and playwright Wallace Shawn. His family is of Jewish background. He received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, a master's degree from Columbia University, and studied in France with Nadia Boulanger.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
He teaches composition and music history at Bennington College and was formerly married to novelist Jamaica Kincaid, with whom he has a son, Harold, and a daughter, Annie.
He is married to pianist Yoshiko Sato, with whom he has a son, Noa.<ref name="marriage"/>
BooksEdit
- Arnold Schoenberg's Journey (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, Template:ISBN)
- Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life (New York: Viking, 2007, Template:ISBN)
- Twin: A Memoir (New York: Viking, 2011, Template:ISBN)
- Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014, Template:ISBN)
- In the Realm of Tones: A Composer's Memoir (University of Rochester Press, 2025, Template:ISBN)
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Allen Shawn biography
- Terry Gross Fresh Air interview with Allen Shawn, NPR.org, February 20, 2007.
- Allen Shawn at the Internet Off Broadway Database
- Allen Shawn Biography at Chaspen Foundation for the Arts
- Resume at Bennington College