Allen Shawn grew up in New York City. He began composing as a 10-year-old, providing music for his brother Wallace’s puppet shows. An early piano teacher encouraged his composing and introduced him to the music of early 20th-century composers. At Kinhaven Music Camp, he had the opportunity to hear his fledgling chamber and orchestral compositions.
As well as being an editor, Shawn’s father William was a gifted amateur jazz pianist who took the family to night clubs where they heard Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Mingus, experiences that left an indelible imprint on the young musician. As a child and teenager, Shawn also benefited from being able to regularly attend chamber music concerts, the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Ballet in the heyday of George Balanchine’s tenure there. At Harvard he studied composition with Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner and, following college, he spent two years studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After a Master’s at Columbia, he continued to compose concert music but also wrote incidental music for a number of plays and scored the film My Dinner With Andre.
His compositions include works for piano; chamber music; vocal music; a children’s opera; and a dozen orchestral works, including a symphony, and several concertos.
Shawn’s career as a writer began in the 1980s with articles on contemporary music in the Atlantic Monthly. His books include Arnold Schoenberg’s Journey and Leonard Bernstein–An American Musician.
Shawn has been on the music faculty of Bennington College since 1985.
October 3 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Notes from a Life: An Evening with Allen Shawn