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"...Alex Shapiro is a name people should know, she's got it all. She is, in a word, a serious and significant composer
of beautiful music. Hats off!"
—Music & Vision Magazine
"[Shapiro's music is] enough to give one hope for the contemporary music scene." —All Music Guide |
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Quick links on this page |
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Music sampler | |
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Essays and interviews | |
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Special live events | |
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| Private teaching studio | ||
| Blog! Notes from the Kelp | ||
Alex news |
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Available now! Notes from the Kelp. |
The response to this CD has been terrific. Read the review All Music Guide gave it: |
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Add some algae to your life and buy a copy! |
Or, download and enjoy right now! |
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Please allow the Snocap player to load... |
You're invited to the islands.
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Alex interactive |
Read Kyle Gann's profile on Alex and the music of Notes from the Kelp, for his American Composer series in the May/June 2008 issue of Chamber Music magazine  |
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| Tune in for Composing Thoughts on WITF-FM, where you can stream a very animated interview Alex gave with host John Clare which aired April 27. |
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| Enjoy a virtual visit with Alex in the online magazine Tokafi, where her March 2008 interview ranges from the serious to the silly |
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| Listen to Alex discuss her new CD, Notes form the Kelp, as a featured artist on the ASCAP Audio Portraits interview series. |
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| See Alex's latest essays about the nonmusical concepts behind a very musical career (1.), and about how composers can create income from their web presence (2.!), in the online magazine NewMusicBox |
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| Hear Alex Shapiro's recent live interview about composers and society, in Philip Blackburn's podcast series for the American Composers Forum, Measure for Measure. Here's Part 1 & Part 2. |  |
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| Experience Alex's irreverent sense of humor in her essay that debunks the myths of symphonic concerts. |
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Absorb Alex's typically direct opinions on life and music in the August 2006 interview for the online magazine Tokafi |
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| Add Alex as a friend at MySpace! |  |
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| Mar 3 | Music for Two Big Instruments (tuba and piano; broadcast) Click to listen, 9pm EST | |
| Mar 5 | Water Crossing (clarinet and electronics) Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan | |
| Mar 8 | Slip (violin and harpsichord) Winston-Salem, North Carolina | |
| Mar 25 | Water Crossing (clarinet and electronics) Ukraine | |
| Mar 30 | Homecoming (concert wind band; premiere) Newport News, Virginia | |
| Apr 6 | Current Events (string quintet; broadcast) Click to listen, 12pm, Berlin, Germany | |
| Apr 7 | Below (contrabass flute and prerecorded electronics; ) Fort Collins, Colorado | |
| Apr 9 | Below (contrabass flute and prerecorded electronics; ) Los Angeles, California | |
| Apr 11 | Below (contrabass flute and prerecorded electronics; premiere) Tucson, Arizona | |
| Apr 14 | Of Breath and Touch (bassoon and piano) Dayton, Ohio | |
| Apr 20 | Water Crossing (clarinet and electronics) Bonn, Germany | |
| Apr 20 | Act (piano and percussion) Bonn, Germany | |
| Apr 20 | Bioplasm (flute quartet; broadcast) Click to listen, 2pm Eastern (NY) | |
| Apr 27 | Deep (contrabassoon and prerecorded electronics; broadcast) Click to listen, 2pm EST (NY) | |
| Apr 27 | At the Abyss (piano and percussion; broadcast) Click here to listen, 2pm Eastern (NY) | |
| Apr 27 | Alex Shapiro Interview (broadcast) Click here to listen, 6pm Eastern (NY) | |
| Apr 29 | Shiny Kiss (solo flute) Dayton, Ohio | |
| May 2 | Homecoming (concert wind band) Newport News, Virginia | |
| May 5 | Below (coontrabass flute and electronics) Melbourne, Australia | |
| May 16 | Deep (contrabassoon and prerecorded electronics; broadcast) Click to listen | |
| Jun 11 | Vista (violin and prerecorded electronics; ) New York, New York | |
| Jul | Water Voyage (clarinet duet and electronics) Kansas City, Missouri | |
| For information about performances, visit Concerts |
Some 2008 speaking appearances |
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April 12: Alex was a speaker for the third year in a row at the ASCAP EXPO at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood. | ||
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April 13: Alex was both a presenter at, and moderator of, the 28th Composers Salon, at Tuttomedia Studios, in Venice, CA. Read about past guests on this special series further down the page at Live Events. | ||
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June 12: Alex will be representing musicians on a panel she will also be moderating at the enormous National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, CO, at the Colorado Convention Center. Her guests will include leaders from the music, theater and dance world, including Rob Capili, Johannes Goebel, Hollis Headrick, and Joe Kluger, discussing creating careers and audiences in the digital world. Artists and arts fans alike are encouraged to attend! | ||
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On January 3rd, Alex taped an interview in New York City with violinist and host John Clare, for his WITF-FM radio show Composing Thoughts. The show aired April 27th, and you can hear the results from the combination of great questions, laughter and single malt scotch HERE. | ||
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January 4-7: Alex was an exhibitor at the Chamber Music America Conference at the Westin Times Square in Manhattan, where the entire Activist Music catalog was on display. | ||
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February 21: Friday Harbor Laboratories hosted a CD Release Party for Alex, and a large crowd turned out to hear about her life in music. Alex talked and played excerpts from Notes from the Kelp and other recent discs, and sales of the CDs benefited one of her favorite causes: the Labs' K-12 Science Outreach Program. Video of the event will be linked here soon. | ||
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February 14: Tired of your first life? Well, the virtual world is a reality for musicians, and Music Academy Online is a big part of the growing trend. Alex was the guest on a Second Life Cable Network television show, which you can watch here. It's worth having a look, just to see the dress Alex's avatar, Asha, is wearing! | ||
| ..For information about recent events, click here |
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The best thing about composers' websites is that they're sonic business cards! Here are excerpts from four of Alex Shapiro's pieces.
Audio clips will automatically load and play.
Need a free player? Click here. |
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Listen to an excerpt from Desert Tide (2006) |
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Excerpt |
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Read about |
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Listen to excerpts from Current Events (2003) |
| Mov't 1: Surge | |
| Mov't 2: Ebb | |
| Mov't 3: Rip |
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Read about |
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Listen to excerpts from Elegy (2004) |
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Listen to excerpts from Bioplasm (2004) |
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| Singing while playing | |
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| Pitched key clicks |
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| Pitch bending, etc. |
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Alex's duo for violin and harpsichord, Slip, is a winner of the 2008 International Aliénor Harpsichord Composition Competition. The piece was performed on March 8 at the annual concert sponsored by the Southeast Historical Keyboard Society. An even more raucous version that adds percussion from around the world, titled Slipping, is featured as the first track on Alex's 2007 CD Notes from the Kelp.
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Homecoming premiered March 30, 2008, in Newport News, Virginia, with a second performance at Fort Monroe soon after on May 2. The concert wind band piece was commissioned by the United States Army for its acclaimed TRADOC Band of Fort Monroe, VA., led by Commander and conductor, Major Tod A. Addison. |
| Below, Alex's new work for contrabass flute and electronics commissioned by flutist Peter Sheridan, premiered at Flute Fest at the University of Arizona on April 11, 2008. The piece will appear on Sheridan's upcoming CD, (Mis)Conceptions. |
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Good reviews |
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The Jan/Feb 2006 issue of the American Record Guide gave a terrific review to Above and Beyond, the new CD from the Los Angeles Flute Quartet, writing, "I am especially taken with the Shapiro "Bioplasm," and the May/June 2006 issue glowingly praises Carolyn Beck's CD, Beck and Call, declaring Deep's "almost gothic lyricism" "a truly unique and original composition for contrabassoon." The March 2006 issue of International Record Review states, "[Beck and Call's] disc opener [of Alex Shapiro's] Of Breath and Touch is delicate and nervous, like a fine race horse...". The May/June issue of Fanfare Magazine calls Alex's work for contrabassoon and electronics, Deep, "...texturally absorbing...", and the May 2006 issue of The Gramophone says of Deep, "The blend of sonorities is ominous and magical." |
Tom Morgan writes for the April 2008 issue of the Percussive Arts Society's magazine, Percussive Notes: "This is not a "percussion" recording, but it is full of wonderful compositions, several of which make prominent use of percussion. This eclectic group of pieces by Alex Shapiro run the gambit from joyful, almost giddy moods to dark, somber colors that remind one of Bartok or possibly Berg... This inspiring recording is great to listen to regardless if one is a percussionist or not. But At the Abyss should be considered by any percussionists looking for great literature to perform." |
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Veteran music critic Alan Rich wrote in his Feb. 2005 L. A. Weekly column, "[Alex Shapiro's string quintet, Current Events] deserves circulation... It's music exceptionally well made... I found it most attractive, especially in a long, beautifully unfolding slow movement." In Rich's July 2005 L. A. Weekly column he praises Alex's flute and oboe duet, Re:pair, as "perky and thoroughly delightful." |
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Wonderful artists feature Alex's music on their CDs, and Alex has also been spending a lot of time lately in recording studios, producing a new CD of her electro-acoustic works, titled Alextronica. A new CD titled Notes From the Kelp, comprised of eight of Alex's favorite pieces from her catalog, was released October 2007 on Innova Recordings, and can be downloaded via Snocap, iTunes or eMusic now: |
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Clariphonia: Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano |
New American Piano Music: Sonata for Piano |
Music for Hammers & Sticks: At the Abyss |
Californian Concert: For My Father |
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Above and Beyond: Bioplasm |
Beck and Call: Of Breath & Touch Deep |
Solo Rumores Luvina |
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La Discordantia: Slip |
60 x 60 2005: Unhinged |
Jenni Scott: Shiny Kiss |
Trio Chromos: Elegy |
Alextronica: Electro-acoustic Music |
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(Mis)Conceptions Below |
Inflorescence V: Shiny Kiss |
Garrison Piano Competition Scherzo |
Alex Shapiro: Notes from the Kelp |
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New CD highlights |
From Mexico: Pianist Ana Cervantes commissioned Alex to compose a short solo piece inspired by the prose of Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, and the resulting work, Luvina, appears on the 2007 Quindecim Recordings 186 CD, Solo Rumores. |
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From Spain: Alex's trio for trumpet, cello and piano, Elegy, has been recorded in Gran Canaria, Spain, by Trio Chromos: Ismael Betancor, trumpet; Carlos Rivero, cello and José Luis Castillo, all soloists with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. The CD, titled Trumpet Colors, was released on Crystal Records 766 April 2007. |
From Germany: Pianist Susanne Kessel featured Alex's piece For My Father in her CD, California Concert, released on Oehms Classics. |
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From Italy: Alex's comedic duet, Slip, appears on the April 2007 Italian DC Records release titled La Discordantia, recorded in Rome by violinist Antonio D'Andrea and harpsichordist Maria Clotilde Sieni. |
From the U.S.: Los Angeles saxophonist Douglas Masek has recorded Alex's electro-acoustic work Desert Tide for his CD, Saxtronic Soundscape, released June 2007 on Centaur Records 2862 . Masek premiered the piece in September 2005 in Cape Town, South Africa. |
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Alex's brief and haunting piece, Unhinged, appears on the 2007 Vox Novus 2-CD release, 60 x 60 2004/2005, from New York City. |
From India: Alex is collaborating with master 32-string veena player Shri. Thakur Chakrapani Singh of Delhi, India, on electro-acoustic pieces that encompass his beautiful ragas. The first of these collaborations, Chakra Suite, was recorded September 2005 and will appear on Alex's upcoming CD, Alextronica. Alex has been invited by The Art and Cultural Trust of India to come to Delhi as their Guest Artist. |
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Mailing list |
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To join the mailing list to receive concert information for your area and news of Alex Shapiro CD releases, click here |
Your contact information will not be shared with anyone for any reason, even if sharks surround Alex's kayak and demand it. Promise! |
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Alex's life and approach to her music career are the subject of a ten-page article, Compose, Communicate and Connect, for the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, Spring 2005 issue. The article was reprinted in the autumn 2005 and winter 2006 issues of The American Composers Forum magazine, Sounding Board. To download this article, as well as to enjoy several other print and broadcast interviews, click here |
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Alex is an active essayist, and you can read her musings on everything from great maestros to bighorn sheep in a collection of pieces found here |
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