18 Quotes by Caroline Shaw

I've spent a lot of time playing Bach partitas. One of my first jobs was to play for ballet and modern classes, so the music in 'Partita' is kind of like choreography for me.

There's a bit of a new guard of contemporary classical musicians in New York, and we play a lot of different kinds of music together. We do pop studio sessions, and we'll also play John Cage and more avant-garde work. We're developing a language of music that comes with a lot of different styles, different kinds of work.

It was sort of an experiment to try to leave the violin. Can I be a real person without this thing? It was a big part of my identity.

I've done a lot of performance practice, Baroque playing, and some of the joy and the challenge of it is figuring out what the composer intended... You have music of the 17th century - it's all whole notes and half notes. But inside of that, there are so many things that one can do, at least according to what we know about performance practice.

I played a lot of Bach's partitas and sonatas; I like the way that Bach was abstracting already from these dance forms.

I could read music and sing all the right notes at the right time. And over time, I literally found my voice, found a way to make sound.

Be free, and live life fully.

I don't really call myself a composer.

I consider myself a musician.