Composer Shelley Washington emerged with a group of widely noticed compositions in the New York area and beyond in the late 2010s. She writes eclectic scores informed by the large variety of instruments she plays, principally baritone saxophone but also including flute, clarinet, and handbells; she is also a singer. Washington was born in 1991 and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She attended Truman State University in Missouri for bachelor's (in saxophone) and master's (in music education) degrees. She moved to New York and earned a master's degree in theory and composition in 2017, studying with Joseph Church, Julia Wolfe, and Caroline Shaw. In 2018, she enrolled in the doctoral program at Princeton University. That year, she received a Jerome Fund for New Music Award. By that time, Washington's music was becoming well known around New York and beyond. She toured the city of Savannah, Georgia, with the Schiele String Quartet, which performed her quartets MIDDLEGROUND and SAY at various sites in the city. She founded a composer collective called Kinds of Kings. In her words, Washington's music "seeks to tell memorable sonic stories that comment on current and past social narratives, both personal and observed. ... I like to write music with a big palette that draws elements from jazz, rock, American folk and other musical spaces, new and old. I also perform regularly as a saxophonist, primarily wielding the baritone saxophone, and I love making lots and lots of noise." She has composed music for full orchestra, including The Third Colossus (2017), and several choral works, including The Farthest, commissioned by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. However, much of her music is for small chamber groups utilizing instruments she plays. Washington has recorded her "relentless" baritone saxophone duo BIG Talk with saxophonist/composer José Cabán for the People | Places | Records label in Brooklyn. She has taught at the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers program and in the Young Composers and Improvisers Workshop. Washington also served as Artistic Director for Brooklyn's Noel Pointer Foundation. ~ James Manheim