Caroline Shaw

Cal Performances

Sō Percussion

The singular new-music ensemble Sō Percussion, celebrated for its “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam” (New Yorker), plays two concerts highlighting three millennial voices who are part of an inspiring generation of women composers currently revitalizing the contemporary music landscape. 

This second concert features Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw as guest vocalist, in the West Coast premiere of a luminous new set of 10 songs Shaw co-composed with the members of the quartet. Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, an exploration of soil cultivation as a metaphor for creativity and collaboration, exploits Shaw’s remarkable ear for melody and harmony and Sō’s playful sense of rhythmic invention. The artists draw inspiration from James Joyce, ABBA, American roots music, plainchant, Christian hymns, and stories from the Old Testament. “Whether inverting an old song or sculpting a whirlwind from dust, Shaw’s work highlights the divine in the ordinary” (Pitchfork).

Sō Percussion with Caroline Shaw, voice