Misplaced Pages

Allen Evan Shawn (born August 27, 1948) is an American composer, pianist, educator, and author based in Vermont.

His music

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 author

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, and Twin: A Memoir, also about Mary and his relationship with her. He discussed Twin with Terry Gross on WHYY's Fresh Air on January 3, 2011.

Personal life

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.

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.

Books

• Arnold Schoenberg's Journey (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, ISBN 0374105901)
• Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life (New York: Viking, 2007, ISBN 9780670038428)
• Twin: A Memoir (New York: Viking, 2011, ISBN 9780670022373)
• Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014, ISBN 9780300144284)

References

1. New York, New York, Birth Index, 1910-1965
2. ^ Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008
3. Shawn, Allen. Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life (New York: Viking, 2007)
4. Shawn, Allen. Twin: A Memoir (New York: Viking, 2011)
5. "Parallel Lives: Having A Twin With Mental Illness". NPR.org. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
6. "Allen Shawn, Nonpop New Music Composer". kalvos.org. Retrieved March 21, 2018.

External links

• 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

• 1948 births
• 20th-century American male musicians
• 20th-century American classical composers
• 21st-century American male musicians
• 21st-century American classical composers
• American male classical composers
• American music educators
• Bennington College faculty
• Classical musicians from New York (state)
• Columbia University alumni
• Educators from New York City
• Harvard University alumni
• Jewish American classical composers
• Living people
• Composers from New York City
• People from Bennington, Vermont
• Writers from New York City
• American twins
• 21st-century American Jews
• Schoenberg scholars