Rosemary Shaw never thought of becoming a musician, but a sudden revelation led her to pursue training to become a professional violist. She studied with Dénes Koromzay, Judith Glyde, and Oswald Lehnert at the University of Colorado in Boulder, with Kurt Sassmannhaus, and at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. Among her most cherished musical memories are David Oistrakh’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Paul Simon’s final concert in 2018, and the voice of Kathleen Ferrier. Rosemary Shaw discovered the OSM through a concert featuring Brahms’ Double Concerto, performed by Steven Isserlis and Joshua Bell. She views music as a continuous process of learning and experimentation that keeps the mind open and attuned to the beauty of this art form.
Rosemary Shaw
Instrument Model: Bernardel (France), 1901
Hometown: Brighton (England) / Boulder (Colorado)
First Musical Loves: The Happy Farmer from the Suzuki method, Bach’s Chaconne, Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde
Favorite Composers: Elgar, Wagner, J. S. Bach, Stravinsky, Queen, Paul Simon
Favorite Works: Elgar’s Nimrod Variations, Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and The Song of the Earth, and Beethoven’s late string quartets
Recent Recordings: Viola sonatas by Brahms and Honegger
Interests: Reading everything ever written, writing bad poetry, astrophysics, tracking wild animals, children, cooking strange Swedish recipes, yoga, forest running, singing
If you hadn’t been a musician, you would have liked to be…: A forest ranger in Montana specializing in wolves