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from the lyrics of one of the songs),
Shaw tried to respond to the skills and
idiosyncrasies of each performer. In case
of Upshaw, she wanted to take advan-
tage of the soprano’s warmth and hon-
esty and the “beautiful richness” in her
lower voice. Upshaw is less a soloist and
more a member of the ensemble, some-
times singing words and other times
just humming. “ at was the real joy
of writing this piece; what I love about
writing music is that you can write for
the particular performer,” Shaw says.
“It’s very tailored to them, and I have no
intention of publishing it and releasing
it to anybody else any time soon.”
Although Shaw’s pro le has shot
up in the classical world, success does
not seem to have gone to her head. “I
certainly hope not,” she says with a
laugh. “I’m very lucky to get to meet
some people I probably would not have
met before, and I just keep my nose to
the grindstone. I work really hard and
always try to make something new.”
At the same time, she maintains the
same do-it-yourself sensibility that has
de ned her entire career. She does not
have a music publisher, for example,
something typically expected of a Pulit-
zer winner. She prefers to self-publish,
an approach she acknowledges is getting
more di cult as the scale of her works
increases. “But it’s actually quite easy to
distribute the music online with PDFs,”
she says. “ at’s where I am right now.”
As her frequent, easy laughter make
clear, Shaw has lost none of the joy she
nds in music and life. It’s an easy bet
that no other Pulitzer Prize–winning
composers would conclude their biogra-
phies with a whimsical list like the one
on the composer’s website: “Caroline
loves the color yellow, otters, Beethoven
op. , Mozart opera, Kinhaven (Music
School), the smell of rosemary, and the
sound of a janky mandolin.”
All that is missing is a smiley face
emoji. But she is too classy for that.
Kyle MacMillan served as classical music critic
for the
Denver Post
from 2000 through 2011.
He currently freelances in Chicago, writing for
such publications and websites as the
Chicago
Sun-Times
,
Wall Street Journal
,
Opera News
,
and
Classical Voice of North America
.
AUGUST 20 – SE3TEM%ER 2, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
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