Allen Shawn

Allen Shawn (* 1948 ) is an American composer . He lives in Vermont .

Life

Allen Shawn is the son of William Shawn , a former editor at New Yorker . His brother is the actor and playwright Wallace Shawn . He used to be in a relationship with the writer Jamaica Kincaid .

He began composing at the age of ten and graduated from Harvard with a bachelor's degree. He then studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris , and obtained a master's degree from Columbia University . From 1972 to 1985 he worked as a pianist in New York. Since 1985 he has been teaching composition at Bennington College .

Among the available recordings of his compositions there are several CDs with chamber music , a CD with piano music and a recording of his Piano Concerto , played by Ursula Oppens with the Albany Symphony and conducted by David Alan Miller. Allen Shawn is also the author of a book about the Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg . It is entitled "Arnold Schoenberg's Journey".

Web links

• Biography on kalvos.org (English)
• Short biography on the Bennington College website
• Allen Shawn in Internet Off-Broadway Database (English)
• Terry Gross Fresh Air Interview with Allen Shawn , NPR.org, February 20, 2007 (English)
• Short biography ( memento of March 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at the Chaspen Foundation for the Arts (English)