Shawne Workman

Shawne Workman headshot

Contact

Departments

Technology and Applied Composition

Courses Taught

MIDI Workshop

Education

PSD in TAC, San Francisco Conservatory of Music

MM in Composition, San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Q&A

What is your hometown?

Los Alamos, New Mexico

What are you passionate about outside of music?

dance

What is your favorite recording? Why?

My mom's vinyl copy of The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, "Faithful Friends. . . Flattering Foe” for nostalgia and their uninhibited collisions of classical and 1960’s rock aesthetics.

Who were your major teachers?

Elinor Armer, Arkadi Serper and Lennie Moore

What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?

Anything they worry might be too basic to ask. (It isn't -- and someone else is probably wondering the same thing.)

What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?

Performing Britten's 'Ceremony of Carols' with the Northern NM Children's Choir on tour as a kid. That was when I first started to realize that nothing else could match up.

What was a turning point in your career?

Starting to compose again after some years away from music. Difficult. Soul-searing. Irresistible.

If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?

Freelance writing/editing, mostly life sciences

If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?

Tallis, Mendelssohn, Pärt

From a music history perspective, what year and city are most important to you, and why?

Paris, 1910 -- Firebird premiere

Biography

For concert and media composer Shawne (S. A.) Workman, creating with sound or text is about emotional flow – searching for the rare ebb and flood of narrative, imagery, and sonority that can raise the hair on your arms. She aims to keep chasing those goosebumps through concert music, lyrics and librettos, and media collaborations.

Events