Caroline Shaw, the young American composer hailed as 'the future of music' who has worked with artists ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to Kanye West and Nas, made her Czech debut at Prague Sounds in 2021, performing a memorable concert alongside Attacca Quartet. This year, Shaw returns to the festival with another standout new music ensemble: New York-based Sō Percussion, known for their innovative approach to their instruments and their work with composers like Steve Reich, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe.
'Sō Percussion, like Shaw, gleefully trample across the boundaries of musical genres, and constantly provoke reassessments of what a percussion group can do.'
The Guardian
Caroline Shaw's album with Attacca Quartet, 2020's Orange, was a Grammy award winner, and she repeated the feat a year later with Narrow Sea, her first album with Sō Percussion, and again this year with their second collaboration Rectangles and Circumstance, whose music takes inspiration from 19th-century poetry by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein and William Blake. The combination of So's dazzling percussive skill and Shaw's expressive vocals creates a musical world quite unlike any other. Those who attended last year's Prague Sounds concert by vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth will have some idea of the boundless invention and dynamic quality of Shaw's music: at that concert, her Pulitzer prize-winning composition Partita For 8 Voices received its Czech debut performance, and brought down the house. Shaw herself was founding member of Roomful of Teeth, and is as striking a singer as she is a composer.
'Telepathic powers of communication.'
New York Times
Sō Percussion are redefining chamber music for the 21st century and have worked in classical music, indie, pop, contemporary dance, and theatre. Like Shaw, they display a healthy disregard for genre boundaries and a fresh approach to live performance. At their Prague Sounds concert, in addition to their collaborations with Shaw, the group will perform Music for Wood and Strings, a work written for them by composer (and The National guitarist) Bryce Dessner. Join us for an evening celebrating the very best in contemporary music.
Line-up
Caroline Shaw – vocals
Sō Percussion:
Jason Treuting
Adam Sliwinski
Josh Quillen
Eric Cha-Beach
