Watch cellist Hannah Collins perform Caroline Shaw’s in manus tuas in our latest Strings Session.
The piece is recorded on Collins’ new solo album Resonance Lines and was originally composed for Collins in 2009. It’s based on a 16th-century motet by Thomas Tallis. Shaw and Collins met at the Yale School of Music and the piece reflects their shared experience of attending and singing compline services at a church in New Haven.
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“An ideal artistic collaboration feels like the discovery and realization of deeply held potential for shared creativity—a sympathetic resonance or surge of energy in the colloquial sense,” Collins says of her latest album, “that is revealed when the right conditions are in place. This album is a collection of music grown of such pairings, collaborations between composers and cellists joined by shared experiences that lead to creative sparks, unique musical gestures, and new sound worlds.”
The album highlights works by composers ranging from the Baroque period to contemporary composers, including Giuseppe Colombi, Kaija Saariaho, Caroline Shaw, Benjamin Britten, and a world premiere recording by Thomas Kotcheff. “That the repertoire on this album also highlights the voices of female, LGBTQ+, and multiracial composers reflects an intersection of identities which resonates with my own experience as a musician, artist, and person,” Collins adds.