Carrie Burpee Shaw

Mary Caroline (Carrie) Burpee Shaw (1850–1946) was an American composer, music educator, and pianist. She published her music under the name Carrie Burpee Shaw.

Shaw was born in Rockland, Maine, to Mary Jane Partridge and Nathaniel Adams Burpee. Her brother was the marine impressionist painter William Partridge Burpee. Shaw married Reverend Eurastus Melville Shaw in 1873 and they had three children, Winifred May, Louis Eaton, and the composer Alice Marion Shaw.

Shaw studied piano and organ with Stephen Emery, Percy Goetschius, Hermann Kotschmann, Frederic Lamond, Benjamin Johnson Lang, Effa Ellis Perfield, Thomas Tapper, and Antha Minerva Virgil. She worked as an organist in several different churches. In 1873, Shaw founded the Rockland Rubenstein Club. In 1900, she and Mrs. James Wright opened the Rockland Music School. In 1907, Shaw accompanied the Maine Festival Chorus. She donated her music collection to the Rockland Public Library in 1942.

Shaw’s music was published by C.W. Thompson & Company. Her compositions include some instrumental works Field Sparrow (women’s chorus) The Lord is Great in Zion (mixed chorus) There was a Little Man (mixed chorus)

Download “Dandelions” by Carrie Burpee Shaw and Winnifred Fales