Shelley Washington
Composer and saxophonist Shelley Washington (1991) has emerged as an important and powerful voice of her generation. She writes music that draws from every sound she’s ever heard, tacking together snippets of jazz, rock, American folk, etc. sewed together with heavy grooves and big harmonies that “expertly mine the deep wells of private emotion,” (Opera News). The music she makes seeks to tell stories, with and without words, and comments on current and past social narratives she has seen or experienced.
Shelley has been commissioned by ensembles such as the Boston Lyric Opera, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Long Beach Opera Company, and Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect. Recently, her chamber orchestra piece, Both, has been performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony. Her arrangement of Julius Eastman’s Joy Boy was recorded by Los Angeles-based ensemble, Wild Up, on their Grammy-nominated album “Eastman Vol. 2: Joy Boy” and her string quartet, MIDDLEGROUND, was featured on PUBLIQuartet’s Grammy-nominated album, “Freedom and Faith”. Currently Artist-in-Residence with the Long Beach Opera Company, she is working on her first full opera, The Passion of the Nell, with librettist and acclaimed novelist, Lisa Teasley.
Shelley is a Ph.D. candidate in Music at Princeton University and teaches composition at New York University Steinhardt. She is an active performer and collaborator who has performed and recorded with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Pieta Brown, the 37d03d Collective, appeared on NPR’s Dolly Parton’s America podcast, and in Netflix and Vox Media’s series, Explained. As a member of the Los Angeles-based chamber orchestra Wild Up, she has been able to contribute to their ongoing Julius Eastman anthology series, and recently provided vocals for Eastman’s Stay On It for their NPR Tiny Desk concert. Alongside vocals and saxophone, Shelley plays guitar in her Brooklyn-based post-rock band, Good Looking Friends. When she isn’t making noise, she can be found walking her dog Rodeo near her home in Brooklyn, NY.
