The score for Ken Burns’ highly anticipated two-part PBS documentary Leonardo da Vinci will be released ahead of the film’s premiere on Nonesuch Records.
(Nonesuch Records)
What’s Happening:
- Announced today at the TCA Summer Press Tour, Nonesuch Records will release a soundtrack to the PBS documentary Leonardo da Vinci on October 25th.
- The documentary’s score was composed by Caroline Shaw, a unique feat marking Burns's film's unprecedented entirely original score.
- Featured performers include Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, Roomful of Teeth, and John Patitucci, all of whom have frequently worked with the composer.
- A music video for the first singl, “Intentions of the Mind,” is now available.
- On October 29th, New York City’s The Town Hall will host an evening of performances from Caroline Shaw’s score in celebration of Leonardo da Vinci. The showcase will also include glimpses from the upcoming four-hour documentary.
- The film reflects on the life and work of the 15th-century polymath, Leonardo da Vinci, making it Burns's first non-American subject. Parts 1 and 2 will air on PBS on November 18th and 19th.
What They're Saying
- Ken Burns, Director: “No single person can speak to our collective effort to understand the world and ourselves. But Leonardo had a unique genius for inquiry, aided by his extraordinary skills as an artist and scientist, that helps us better understand the natural world that we are part of and to appreciate more fully what it means to be alive and human.”
- David McMahon, Director: "To help give depth and dimension to Leonardo’s inner life, we enlisted the composer Caroline Shaw, whose existing body of music spoke directly to Leonardo. A fully original score was pivotal in connecting the areas where Leonardo’s life record is thin and easy to lose his trail. The music Caroline created is dynamic, enthralling and filled with wonder."
- Sarah Burns, Director: “As we set out to explore Leonardo’s life, we realized that he was not just a man of his era but also interested in something more universal. His unique focus on finding connections throughout nature strikes us as very modern today, despite having a long history.”
About Caroline Shaw
Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has worked with a range of artists including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma, and she has contributed music to films and TV series including Fleishman Is in Trouble, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, and Beyoncé’s Homecoming. In addition to three albums with Sō Percussion, Narrow Sea, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, and Rectangles and Circumstance, Nonesuch has released her two Grammy-winning albums Orange and Evergreen, both of which feature Attacca Quartet. “Two-Step” and “Ghost,” Shaw’s songs with Ringdown, her duo with Danni Lee Parpan, are available now on Nonesuch. Caroline Shaw is Wigmore Hall’s 2024-25 Composer in Residence.