Shelley Washington (born 1991)
Shelley Washington grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master of Arts in Education from Truman State University, and a Master of Music in Composition from New York University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at Princeton University, and she lives there and in Brooklyn.
On her website, Shelley Washington calls herself a “big palette” composer, drawing influences from “jazz, rock, American folk and other musical spaces, new and old.”
My music explores intricate rhythms to encourage a sort of layered listening through grooves, melody, and harmony. In the music I write that confronts known social injustices, I want to create a space for public dialogue while personally reclaiming power for my own experienced inequalities. Shaking the cages, raging against the machine, and supporting others make me happy.
SAY (2016) is for string quartet with voice and body percussion, and incorporates comments and questions that Shelley Washington (who is mixed race) was forced to deal with while growing up:
A more extensive biographical background appears on her website in connection with this composition.
This is Silk, a 2017 composition for piano, double base, vibraphone, and drum kit: