Allen Shawn

Allen Evan Shawn (born August 27, 1948) is an American composer, pianist, educator, and author based in Vermont. His music Shawn began composing at the age of ten, but dates his mature work from 1977. He has written a dozen orchestral works, including a symphony, two piano concertos, a cello concerto, and a violin concerto; three chamber operas; five piano sonatas and many additional works for piano; and a large catalogue of chamber music, songs and choral music. Among Shawn’s available recordings are several of chamber music, four CDs of piano music, including a CD devoted to his piano work by German pianist Julia Bartha, a piano concerto performed by Ursula Oppens with the Albany Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Alan Miller, and the chamber opera The Music Teacher, with a libretto by his brother, Wallace Shawn. As author Shawn is the author of a book about Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, Arnold Schoenberg’s Journey, and a book about Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician. He is also the author of Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life, which examines his experiences with anxiety and panic disorder, as well as his relationship with