You're here
Bio
Works
Concerts
Contact
Recordings
Commissions
Dial-a-Mood
Links
Essays
Jazz/Film/TV
Purchase

Alex Shapiro
composer
 
"...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

 
Alex Shapiro
email
       

Quick links on this page
Music sampler  
Essays and interviews
Special live events
  Commercial music
  Private teaching studio
  Blog! Notes from the Kelp
     
 
Alex news
 

 

Notes from the Kelp CD

Available now! Notes from the Kelp.
Released on Innova Recordings 683, this disc is a collection
of eight of Alex's most representative chamber works.
To read about the music and hear excerpts, click here

The response to this CD has been terrific.
Read the review All Music Guide gave it:
All Music Guide
Add some algae to your life and buy a copy!
Or, download and enjoy right now!
Snocap link
iTunes link
eMusic
Please allow the Snocap player to load...

 

     
 

You're invited to the islands.
Visit the companion blog to the CD:

blog link

 

 
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 Chamber Music
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.
Composing Thoughts
Enjoy a virtual visit with Alex in the online magazine Tokafi, where her March 2008 interview ranges from the serious to the silly Tokafi
Listen to Alex discuss her new CD, Notes form the Kelp, as a featured artist on the ASCAP Audio Portraits interview series. ASCAP
ASCAP
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
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.
Measure for Measure
Experience Alex's irreverent sense of humor in her essay that debunks the myths of symphonic concerts.
Adaptistration

Absorb Alex's typically direct opinions on life and music in the August 2006 interview for the online magazine Tokafi

Tokafi
Add Alex as a friend at MySpace!
MySpace
For more of Alex's articles and interviews, visit Essays
 

Google

Looking for anything in particular on this website?
 
Some current performances
 

 

Want to hear Alex Shapiro's music?
Here is a sampling of concerts and broadcasts.
Click on any title for more information.

 

 

     
  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
 
Los Angeles
       
 
ASCAP EXPO
April 12: Alex was a speaker for the third year in a row at the ASCAP EXPO at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood.  
       
 
Alex Shapiro
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.  
       
Denver
       
 
NPAC
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!  
       
New York
       
 

Alex Shapiro

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.  
       
 

Chamber Music America

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.  
       
Friday Harbor
       
 
CD Party and lecture
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.  
       
Other-worldly
       
 
Second Life
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  
       
       
 
Music sampler
 
 

The best thing about composers' websites is that they're sonic business cards! Here are excerpts from four of Alex Shapiro's pieces.


Click the MP3 icon to hear an excerpt. Click the title to learn more about it.

Audio clips will automatically load and play. Need a free player? Click here.

Alex Shapiro
         
 
Read about
Desert Tide
read
for soprano saxophone and electronics
Desert Tide
Listen to an excerpt from
Desert Tide (2006)
 
Excerpt
hear
       
 

Read about
Current Events
read

for string quintet

Current Events
Listen to excerpts from
Current Events (2003)
Mov't 1: Surge
hear
Mov't 2: Ebb
hear
Mov't 3: Rip
hear
       

Read about
Elegy
read
for trumpet, cello
and piano

Elegy
Listen to excerpts from
Elegy (2004)
 
Excerpt 1
hear
Excerpt 2
hear
       
 
Read about
Bioplasm
read
for flute quartet
Bioplasm
Listen to excerpts from
Bioplasm (2004)
 
Singing while playing
hear
Pitched key clicks
hear
Pitch bending, etc.
hear
 
DE

To experience the entire catalog, please visit Works

Want to hear much more? Visit Alex's original Dial-a-Mood

To order scores to these and other works, please visit Purchase

In addition to traditionally bound scores and parts,
music is available at half price as .pdf files.
purchase pdfs


 
 
2008 Musical news
 
 

Slip

hear

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.


TRADOC Band

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.

Peter Sheridan

 
Good reviews
 
 
     

Gramophone

American Record Guide

Int'l Record Review

Fanfare

The Double Reed

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."
Percussive Notes
L.A. Weekly

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."

L.A. Weekly
 
 
Recent and upcoming CD releases
 
Alex Shapiro

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:

Snocap link
iTunes link
eMusic link

 

..Click on any CD for more information.

 

 
Clariphonia
New American Piano Music
Hammers & Sticks
Coast to Coast
Californian Concert
New American
Piano Music:
Sonata for Piano

Music for
Hammers & Sticks:
At the Abyss

Californian
Concert:
For My Father

Above and Beyond
Beck and Call
Solo Rumores
Saxtronic Soundscape
Delicate Balance
Above and Beyond:
Bioplasm

Beck and Call:
Of Breath & Touch
Deep

Solo Rumores
Luvina

Saxtronic Soundscape:
Desert Tide

Delicate Balance:
Water Crossing

La Discordantia
60 x 60
Jenni Scott
Trumpet Colors
Alextronica
La Discordantia:
Slip
60 x 60 2005:
Unhinged
Jenni Scott:
Shiny Kiss
Trio Chromos:
Elegy
(Mis)Conceptions
Inflorescence V
Garrison Festival
Alex Shapiro
 
(Mis)Conceptions
Below
Inflorescence V:
Shiny Kiss
Garrison Piano Competition
Scherzo
Alex Shapiro:
Notes from the Kelp

To listen to these CDs, please visit Recordings

To purchase available CDs, please visit Purchase

 
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.

Solo Rumores CD
 
 
Trumpet Colors CD

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.

 
La Discordantia CD

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.

 
60 x 60 2004/2005
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.

Thakur Chakrapani Singh

 
 
Mailing list
 
 
shark-ho!

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!

offshore Malibu

 
 
A few essays and interviews
 
 

Sounding Board

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

IAWM Journal

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
TAFTO