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bald eagle
     
Biographical overview  
 
Looking for a short program bio, or press kit?
please click here
Short bios

Short bios

     

Alex Shapiro aligns note after note with the hope that a few of them might actually sound good next to each other. She has become one of the Pacific coast's most familiar composers of acoustic and electroacoustic music, and her expressive works are performed and broadcast daily across the U.S. and internationally. Published by Activist Music, Shapiro's music can be found on over twenty commercially released CDs from record labels around the world.

Born in New York City in 1962 and raised in Manhattan, Alex began composing as a much shorter person at age nine. She was educated at The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, where she was a composition student of Ursula Mamlok and John Corigliano. Earlier composition studies from age fifteen were with Leo Edwards at Mannes College of Music and with Michael Czajkowski and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music School. An accomplished pianist, Ms. Shapiro was a student of New York recitalist Marshall Kreisler, and she is an active guitarist as well.

Alex Shapiro
Photo: Paul Chepikian

Alex's concert music is a diverse, dramatic collection spanning from chamber groups to large ensembles, and from purely acoustic pieces to works that pair musicians with prerecorded digital audio. The 2010-2011 concert season included nine premieres of Shapiro commissions, including a groundbreaking suite for electroacoustic symphonic wind band titled Immersion for a consortium of universities led by the University of Minnesota and broadcast nationally on Minnesota Public Radio. Also premiered were a dectet for strings and winds titled Archipelago for Chicago's Fifth House Ensemble; Unabashedly More, a mixed chamber sextet premiered at Carnegie Hall by the New York ensemble Lunatics at Large; Slowly, searching for German pianist Susanne Kessel for her latest CD and concert tour; and Elegiac, for clarinet, cello and piano, premiered by Chamber Music San Juans, a Pacific Northwest ensemble which also gave the premiere of Shapiro's Intermezzo for Cello and Piano in August 2011.

Vendaval de Luvina, a haunting piece for piano, digital audio and prerecorded spoken word based on a short story by Mexican author Juan Rulfo, was premiered in California by pianist Teresa McCollough, who will be giving the California and New York City premieres of Ms. Shapiro's latest solo piano work, Spark, in November 2011. Perhaps the most instantly popular of Ms. Shapiro's newest pieces has been Paper Cut, an unusual offering for wind band, prerecorded electronics and printer paper (yes, printer paper), commissioned for the BandQuest series by the American Composers Forum and the National Endowment for the Arts. The piece, distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation, has rapidly become a favorite with high schools and colleges, and has been performed many times throughout the U.S., Canada and Asia. Paper Cut will be featured at the December 2011 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, performed by the VanderCook College of Music Symphonic Band.

An enthusiastic leader in the new music community, Alex is a strong advocate for other artists through her speaking appearances, published articles and volunteerism. She is the elected national concert music representative on the ASCAP Board of Review, is a member of ASCAP's Symphony & Concert Committee, serves on the Board of Directors of The MacDowell Colony, and chairs the Media Council for New Music USA. Ms. Shapiro is the past President of the Board of Directors of the American Composers Forum of Los Angeles, and has also served as on the boards of national music organizations including The American Music Center, The College Music Society, NACUSA, and The Society of Composers & Lyricists. Shapiro's volunteer activism extends beyond the music world to additional interests, and includes three terms she served in the 1990's on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Southern California, including two years as the 30,000-member affiliate's Vice-president. Reflecting an affinity with the ocean that inspires much of her music, Alex is also a Board member of the University of Washington's renowned marine science research facility, the Friday Harbor Laboratories.

 

Alex Shapiro
Photo: Paul Chepikian

Articulate, passionate and entertaining, Ms. Shapiro appears regularly as a speaker at a wide variety of music events, which have included NARAS' Grammy® in the Schools, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's First Nights series, IAWM's International Congress of Women in Music, the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, Colorado, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, and each of ASCAP's I Create Music Expos in Hollywood. Since 2000 Alex has interviewed over 100 composers as the moderator of the Los Angeles Composer’s Salon series as well as ACF/LA's Composer to Composer series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and she is a familiar guest lecturer at many colleges and universities. Alex is especially well versed on the uses of digital media for the promotion of artists' careers, and is a speaker for the ASCAP Composer Career Workshop touring series she co-founded. She recently testified on a Federal Communications Commission panel hearing in Washington, D.C., about broadband access and digital rights issues.

Ms. Shapiro is the recipient of national honors and awards including those from the American Music Center, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer and Mu Phi Epsilon, and she has been awarded artist fellowships from The California Arts Council and The MacDowell Colony. In August 2011, Ms. Shapiro was honored with the national music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon's highest award given to members, the Award of Merit, for her inventive use of new technologies in developing her composing career and helping colleagues do the same.

A longtime resident of Malibu, California, Alex now resides on Washington State's San Juan Island. When she's not composing, she procrastinates on her next piece by communing with the sea life that surrounds her, as seen on her music- and photo-filled nature blog, Notes from the Kelp.

 

For an electronic press kit, including a program bio, photo, full bio/C.V. and catalog of works, please click here more
For the very latest news on what Alex is doing and where she or her music is doing it, please click here more
 
Alex speaks at many events and motivates people in and outside of the music world. Whether discussing the philosophy of self worth or the importance of a sense of humor, Alex is an engaging presenter who's been referred to by more than a few people as "the female Anthony Robbins of contemporary music."
CD Party and lecture

 

To see a video and obtain booking information, click here more
 
     
sunset over Sidney

Want to get a good sense of Alex? Here's a 60 second excerpt from an interview she gave to Lavinia Wright at the 2010 ASCAP EXPO in Hollywood, CA.

Alex discussing the importance of artists' sense of self worth, and of having a supportive attitude toward one's community:

 
     
bald eagle take-off
 
Alex interactive
 
 

Alex's career is multi-dimensional, encompassing composing, speaking, and writing, as well as a great deal of community involvement. Oh, and a lot of nature photography that can be seen throughout this website, and on her blog, Notes from the Kelp. Here is a small sampling of what keeps her busy.

     
In the air
 

Why just read a bio about someone when you can hear what they have to say? Click to watch or listen to Alex on any of these broadcasts.

ASCAP Expo interview

April 2010
approach to composing

May 2010
Advice for conference attendees

April 2010

Composing Thoughts

January 2008

Measure for Measure

August 2006
Kalvos and Damian

July 2004

ASCAP Audio Portraits


December 2007
American MusicMakers

February 2006

 

For more broadcast information, click here more
 
In print
 

Alex's challenging thoughts on the new digital paradigm, the internet, free speech and the meaning of net neutrality to all artists, have been published in three January 2010 essays for the online magazine NewMusicBox.

Read The Economy of Exposure: Publicity as Payment? here more

Read What I Learned About My Tiny Business From Paramount Pictures here more

Read As Important as the Printing Press: Net Neutrality and Artists' Freedom here more

NewMusicBox

Sounding Board

Alex's life and approach to her music career are the subject of a ten-page autobiographical 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 more

IAWM

You can read the November 2011 interview Alex gave to the terrific organization, Composers & Schools in Concert, to get a sense of her enthusiasm about professional musicians working with young students. Click here for the article empty

CSIC

1. Tokafi

2. Tokafi

Alex has been interviewed twice for the online webzine Tokafi. Her March 2008 (1.) interview ranges from the serious to the silly, and her August 2006 interview (2.) exposes her typically direct opinions on life and music.

 

For more articles and writings, visit Essays more
 
In view
 

Alex's thoughts on the importance of artists in America, from an interview she gave to Lavinia Wright at the 2010 ASCAP EXPO in Hollywood, CA.:

To see more videos of Alex's videos, visit her YouTube Channel more
 
In person
 
Featured Speaker
 

Alex was the keynote speaker at the January 2010 Friday Harbor luncheon of Soroptimist International, at which she delivered a 45-minute motivational talk. For more info on Alex's presentations to audiences outside of the arts, click here more

Soroptimist International

CCI
Alex Shapiro and composer/pianist Billy Childs were the guest speakers for the Center for Cultural Innovation series, Conversations... Set to Music, moderated by artist Patrick Scott in October 2007.

SCI

Alex was the Keynote Speaker for the 2006 Society of Composers, Inc. National Student Conference at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

Moderator, panelist
 

Alex appeared for the sixth consecutive year in April 2011 as a speaker and mentor at the ASCAP I Create Music Expo in Hollywood, presenting the Composer Career Workshop she co-founded with attorney and EAM/Schott Music publisher Jim Kendrick and composer Stephen Paulus.

ASCAP EXPO

Alex returns for the third year in a row in January 2012to speak at the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, where she will join composers Aaron Jay Kernis, Steven Stucky, and Stephen Paulus for a panel discussion about composer's careers titled, Connecting with Your Communities.

Composers Institute

In April 2010, Alex moderated the 36th Composers Salon in Los Angeles, CA., and will return February 2012 to host the 43rd Salon. This popular series that Alex co-founded with Kubilay Uner, is now in its eleventh year, and Alex has interviewed over 100 composers who participate to discuss their work with other colleagues. Presenters at any given Salon range from Pulitzer, Grammy, Tony, Emmy and Oscar-award winners to those in mid-career, and span a wide array of musical styles and an even broader one of conversation. Alex Shapiro
NPAC

In June 2008, Alex represented musicians on a panel she also moderated at the enormous National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, CO, at the Colorado Convention Center. Her guests included leaders from the music, theater and dance world, and the discussion orbited around the topic of creating careers and audiences in the digital world.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

In March 2004, Alex appeared on stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and composer Steven Stucky, guiding the audience through the creation and premiere of Stucky's 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning Second Concerto for Orchestra.

Composer-in-Residence
 

Alex was the Composer-in-Residence for the NOW Music Festival hosted by Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, February 2010, where she gave private lessons and master classes, and faculty artists presented a concert of her chamber, electro-acoustic and jazz compositions..

Capital University

In March 2011, Alex was a featured guest composer-in-residence at the Aries Festival 2011: New Music at Colorado State, at Colorado State University, where her chamber work Desert Thoughts and one of her newest electroacoustic symphonic wind band pieces, Surface, were performed and she gave two master classes as well as an ASCAP Composer Career Workshop.

Colorado State

Alex enjoyed giving master classes, presentations, lessons and a keynote speech during a residency in March 2011, as the featured composer for the biannual Athena Festival at Murray State University, celebrating women in music.

Murray State

Santa Clara

Alex was Composer-in-Residence and Moderator of the New Music Festival at Santa Clara University with Chen Yi and Alvin Singleton in February 2006, at which the Los Angeles Flute Quartet performed Bioplasm.

Alex was also one of the featured composers at Voices on the Edge: Women in Electroacoustic Music Festival at Cal State Fullerton with Pamela Z and Chen Yi in March 2006, at which contrabassoonist Carolyn Beck performed Deep.

Voices

 
To see more of Alex's recent activities, visit Event Archive more
 
     
sea ducks
  Recordings  

Many CDs are currently available which feature Alex Shapiro's works, and there are a number of new recordings coming out in the next year from a wide variety of artists. Additionally, Alex's own CD of several of her favorite chamber works, Notes From the Kelp, was released October 2007 on Innova Recordings and is in its second pressing, and she is currently producing a CD of her electro-acoustic works, titled Alextronica.

To read what All Music Guide had to say about Alex's CD, Notes from the Kelp, click here review

 

 
 
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
Below
Inflorescence V
Garrison Festival
An Robert Schumann
Alex Shapiro
Below: Music for Low Flutes:
Below
Inflorescence V:
Shiny Kiss
Garrison Piano Competition:
Scherzo
An Robert Schumann:
Slowly, searching
Alex Shapiro:
Notes from the Kelp
 
To listen to excerpts from these CDs, visit Recordings more
 
     
Flattop rainbow
     
  Performances
 

From New York's Carnegie Hall and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., to Geneva's CERN and stages from Hong Kong to Havana, Reykjavik to Rio de Janeiro, Alex Shapiro's music is heard weekly around the globe. Here are three recent premieres:

Lunatics at Large

Listen to the premiere: 

1. hear   2.  hear

March 21, 2011: The New York ensemble Lunatics at Large premiered Alex's chamber sextet, Unabashedly More, for flute/piccolo, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano at Carnegie Hall, as part of the ensemble's Sanctuary Project, which paired composers and poets.

 

5HE

Listen to the premiere: 

1. hear   2.  hear

November 15, 2009: Fifth House Ensemble premiered Alex's acoustic chamber work, Archipelago, for string quartet, double bass and woodwind quintet in the Chicago suburb of Lockport, Illinois. Alex was there to introduce the piece, which was commissioned by the Norton Building Concert Series with the assistance of funding from The MacArthur Foundation.

 

Classical MPR-Immersion

 

Click here to listen to the premiere of IMMERSION!

February 16, 2011: Alex's electroacoustic symphony for winds and percussion, Immersion, was beautifully premiered by conductor Jerry Luckhardt and the University of Minnesota Symphonic Band, and broadcast nationally from Minnesota Public Radio.

 

To see a sampling of performances, visit Concerts more
 
     
crab claw
     
Kindness from others  
 

Alex has been very fortunate to receive positive affirmation about her music from many sources, like these:

Alex has been honored by the national music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon with its highest award, the Award of Merit. Citing "her dedication to new music composition and activism for the arts," the award, given to a member biannually, was presented at the Mu Phi Epsilon National Convention held in August 2011 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. To read the lovely inscription on the placque, click here more

MPE Award of Merit

Here's 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 more
Chamber Music
Here's the wonderful All Music Guide review of Alex's chamber music CD, Notes from the Kelp more
All Music Guide
For a list, visit Awards and Reviews more
 
     
gull
     
    Publishing  

Each of Alex Shapiro's concert scores are published by her company Activist Music and are directly available through thePurchase page of this website. The entire Activist Music catalog is available through J.W. Pepper and Son, Inc., and most works in her catalog are also distributed by Theodore Front Musical Literature, Inc., Harrassowitz, and Hickey's Music Online. Ms. Shapiro's flute music is also available through Flute World, andCarolyn Nussbaum Music Company; her music for double reed instruments may also be ordered through TrevCo Music, her brass music is also available from BVD Press and Tuba-Euphonium Press, and her percussion music can be found at Steve Weiss Music.

The name Activist Music originates from Ms. Shapiro's belief that all people must be encouraged to raise their voices, articulate their principles and do what they can to affect change around them, whether in politics, within their own neighborhoods, or through the art which they share with others. Activist Music is an elected member of the National Music Publishers' Association, which works to protect intellectual property rights and expand U.S. Copyright law.

To download a .pdf of the complete Activist Music catalog,
please click here
Catalog
Bio

 

To order Alex Shapiro's scores and CDs, visit Purchase more
 
     
limpet
  Professional Involvement
   
 
Leadership
Shapiro-HuangAlex with composer Joan Huang during an ACF/LA Composer's Salon.

 

ACF Salon
Alex (left), with 2007 Composer Salon participants (clockwise from top): Gernot Wolfgang, Giovanna Imbesi, Michael Roth, Randy Newman, Bei Bei He, Kubi Uner (seated) and Drew Schnurr.

Ms. Shapiro served on the Board of Directors of the American Music Center when it merged with Meet the Composer and became New Music USA, for which she is the Chairperson of its Media Council. She is a current board member of The MacDowell Colony, and the recent President of the Board of Directors of the American Composers Forum of Los Angeles as well as Chairperson of the ACF/LA Advisory Council. Since 2000 she has been the Moderator of ACF's popular Composer's Salon series as well as its Composer to Composer series held at Walt Disney Concert Hall. She has served as an officer of The National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA) and as an officer of the Pacific Southern Chapter of The College Music Society.

In 1997 Shapiro co-chaired a committee for ASCAP to develop composers' contract standards for negotiations for the use of original music over the Internet, and she is currently a member of ASCAP's Symphony & Concert Committee. Along with fellow committee members composers Stephen Paulus, Jennifer Higdon, and attorney and Schott Music president Jim Kendrick, Alex has founded a U.S. touring series of music business seminars titled, The ASCAP Composer Career Workshop. In 2010, Alex was elected as the concert music composer representative to the ASCAP Board of Review.

From 2003 to 2007, Alex also served on the Advisory Board for the Los Angeles City College Music Department, and she is a longtime member of the Alumni Council of Manhattan School of Music.

In 1994 Ms. Shapiro joined the Board of Directors of The Society of Composers & Lyricists, the professional association of film music artists, and served three terms from 1994-2000, including two years as the organization's Vice president. Alex extended her efforts with The Society of Composers & Lyricists in her role as the Chairperson of the 1996-1999 Film & TV Music Conferences, co-presented in Los Angeles at The Directors Guild of America by the SCL and The Hollywood Reporter.

Schalchlin-ShapiroAlex with musical theater artist Steve Schalchlin during an ACF/LA Composer's Salon.

Alex chaired the Public Relations Committee for Women in Film's 1993 Crystal Awards, honoring Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews, and has volunteered her time to many arts and music organizations in Los Angeles. Reflecting her achievements as a composer as and as public advocate for artists, Alex's biography is included in the Marquis Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Women.

Childs-Shapiro-Uner-Imbesi
Composer/pianist Billy Childs, Alex, and composers and Salon producers
Kubi Uner and Giovanna Imbesi at a 2005 Composers Salon Alex moderated
at Tuttomedia Studios in Venice, CA.

Karush-Shapiro-Riley
Alex with composers Larry Karush and Terry Riley by her home in Malibu,
June 2006, where they performed a house concert.

Newman-Shapiro
Composer Randy Newman and Alex share a laugh during Newman's presentation at the
July 2007 Composers Salon which Alex moderated in Venice, CA.

Public speaking
 

An engaging public speaker with an unusually broad range of experience, Alex has moderated panels for countless seminars. She's a familiar face to audiences at The Society of Composers & Lyricists, and The American Composers Forum, for which she has interviewed over 100 composers including Steven Stucky, Randy Newman, Mort Subotnick, Anne LeBaron, Mark Watters, Bruce Broughton, Vinny Golia, David Newman, Joan Huang, Stephen Paulus, John Steinmetz, and Bill Kraft for the Los Angeles Composers Salon series, now in its ninth year. Additionally, Alex has also conducted American Composer Forum Composer to Composer interviews at Walt Disney Concert Hall and other Los Angeles venues with guests as diverse as Steve Reich, Gavin Bryars, Christopher Rouse, Don Davis and Billy Childs.

Alex was the Keynote Speaker at the October 2006 Society of Composers, Inc. National Student Conference, and represented musicians on a panel she also moderated in June 2008 at the enormous National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, CO, at the Colorado Convention Center.

Alex at 2008 ASCAP ExpoAlex on a 2008 ASCAP EXPO panel with John Mackey, Doug Wood, upper row, and Frank J. Oteri and Martha Mooke, lower.

Alex at 2011 ASCAP ExpoAlex gave a 2011 ASCAP EXPO Composer Career Workshop with ASCAP boardmembers Jim Kendrick and Stephen Paulus, standing with ASCAP's Concert Music Dept. Asst. VP Cia Toscanini.

Among the panel discussions Alex has led for the SCL are The Virtuoso Soloist in Film Music, presented on the scoring stage of 20th Century Fox Studios in 2000 and featuring violinist Joshua Bell (The Red Violin), pianist Ralph Grierson (E.T.), and bagpiper Eric Rigler (Titanic), and the 2004 seminar, Launching Your Film Scoring Career. On the topic of new technologies, Alex moderated a session for the 2004 Music Business Chops seminar in Los Angeles, with industry leaders including CD Baby founder Derek Sivers, Tony van Veen of Disc Makers, and Jim Griffin of Cherry Lane Digital.

In 2004 Alex appeared on stage with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to co-host the sold-out premiere of Steven Stucky's Pulitzer prize-winning work, Second Concerto for Orchestra, for the L.A. Phil's First Nights series. In January 2006 and again in January 2009, Ms. Shapiro was a panel speaker for the Chamber Music America Conference in New York City. In February 2006 she was the moderator for an evening of composer Chen Yi's works at the New Music Festival at Santa Clara University.

Alex is an especially familiar speaker within the new music community, on the uses of digital media for the promotion of artists' careers. She has been a featured speaker at each of the six ASCAP EXPOs in Hollywood, the 2009 and 2010 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, the American Composer Forum's Making Music Work series at McNally-Smith College, NETMCDO (Network of Music Career Development Officers), two of Chamber Music America's national conferences in New York City, the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, and around the U.S. at the ASCAP Composer Career Workshops, of which she is a co-founder.

In 2009, Shapiro joined fellow ASCAP members on Capitol Hill to meet with numerous senators and congresspeople in an effort to ensure audio visual download rights, and she testified on a Federal Communications Commission panel hearing in Washington, D.C., about broadband access and digital rights issues.

lobbying with ASCAP lobbying with ASCAP

ASCAP lobbying
Alex (right) lobbying in Washington, D.C. in May, 2009 with ASCAP boardmembers and staff.
Above, speaking to Senator Arlen Specter (R/D-PA), and to Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) in their offices.


Alex testifying at the FCC in Washington, D.C., September 2009.

 
Broadcasts
 

Alex has been a lively guest on numerous radio and podcast shows, including Los Angeles' KPFK-FM's For the Record with Samm Brown, Music of the Americas with Jeannie Pool, the KXLU-FM Los Angeles program, Trilogy, and The Audition Booth with Martin Perlich on KCSN-FM, as well as WGDR-FM's Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, and the nationally syndicated NPR show, Theme and Variations. An interview Alex gave producer Steven Rosenfeld of Behind the Beat appears on the ASCAP Audio Profiles page, and her interview with John Clare for the WITF-FM radio show Composing Thoughts aired in 2008. The virtual world is an active arena as well, and Alex has been the February 2008 and May 2009 guest on the Second Life Cable Network talk show for Music Academy Online.

Alex's life and music were the subject of a one-hour interview on a new radio series called American MusicMakers produced by Theme and Variations host Will Everett, airing on over 70 public radio stations across the U.S. She has also been the featured guest on Los Angeles major market syndicated shows on KFI 640 and KABC 790 AM radio. Her interview for the American Composers Forum series, Measure for Measure, was the inaugural August 2006 broadcast for the new podcast program.

 

To hear these broadcasts, click here more
 


Alex with composer Morten Lauridsen on Waldron Island, WA, July 2011.

Shapiro-Mamlok
Alex with composer Ursula Mamlok in Santa Barbara, CA, June 2006.

Shapiro-Moore
Composer Carman Moore shares a laugh with Alex in New York City, May 2011 (Photo by Norberto Valle).

Shapiro-Stein-Stucky
Alex, with the late pianist Leonard Stein and composer Steven Stucky
as she spoke at the March 2004 ACF/Los Angeles Music Room.

 
 
Published essays & articles

Alex Shapiro

Alex is the featured composer in the ten-page autobiographical lead article, Compose, Communicate and Connect for the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, Spring 2005 issue. Widely praised for its candor, the article was reprinted in two parts in the Autumn 2005 and Winter 2006 issues of the American Composers Forum magazine, Sounding Board.

Alex has been a regular contributor to The Society of Composers & Lyricists' award-winning publication, The Score, and is the author of several columns on composers and new technology, including the journal's cover article entitled Multimedia: You Can Get There From Here. She is also a recent essayist for the American Music Center's online magazine, New Music Box in an exploration of new music and the labels of neo-romanticism, and on the subjects of artists and self worth, and using the web to create income. In addition to articles on music business and technology for publications ranging from New Music Box to the newsletter for American Express cardholders, Alex is a familiar presence on the Sequenza 21 web blog, winner of the 2005 ASCAP Deems Taylor Internet Award. To read Alex's essays on music, nature and her humorous musings about life in general, click here. Alex is also the author of the photosonic blog, Notes from the Kelp, which pairs her photographs with audio clips of her music each week, offering a personal view into her unique island environment.

In April 2006 Alex was invited to contribute to a set of guest essays about bringing new listeners to the symphony, on Drew McManus' widely read orchestra management blog, Adaptistration. Her essay and many others appear in the collection, Take a Friend to the Orchestra.

Shapiro has been profiled in numerous articles and interviews, including being featured in Kyle Gann's American Composer series in the May/June 2008 issue of Chamber Music magazine. Other pieces about her life and work have appeared in New Music Forum, Sigma Alpha Iota's Pan Pipes, Mu Phi Epsilon's Triangle,and NACUSA's Composer/USA, as well as in publications spanning from the Malibu Surfside News to Great Britain's Music & Vision Magazine. She has been featured in articles on working composers in two Film & TV Music Special Issues of The Hollywood Reporter, in the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music and in issues of the American Composers Forum magazine, Sounding Board. The online magazine, Tokafi, has featured Alex twice in wide-ranging interviews for its August 2006 and March 2008 issues, and Alex was the August 2006 featured composer for the professional music network, My Auditions. Alex's life and music have been the subject of two doctoral dissertations.

 

To read these and other writings, visit Essays more
 

Rakowski-Shapiro-Singleton
Composers David Rakowski and Alvin Singleton with Alex
at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, September 2003.

McCollough and Shapiro
Pianist Teresa McCollough with Alex, at sea in the San Juan Islands, August 2007.

MSM Reunion Dinner
Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner, October, 2008, Manhattan School of Music:
(seated) Composer Aaron Jay Kernis, Alex Shapiro, MSM President Robert Sirota, Vickie Sirota,
(standing) Elizabeth Dworkin, Dylan Maulucci, Salvatore Di Vittorio,
Santa Maria Pecoraro, and Arkady
Aronov.

Guest lectures
 

With her commitment to sharing knowledge about music and about the business of working as a musician, Alex is regularly invited to be a guest lecturer to composition classes at colleges, universities and music conservatories across the U.S., several of which have produced concerts devoted to her music. Among the many institutions at which she has spoken are The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), California State University at Sacramento, Santa Clara University, Cornish College of the Arts, University of Minnesota, University of California at Santa Barbara and University of Chicago.

Alex is a featured presenter at myriad music events, with past appearances including the NARAS Grammy in the Schools program, The Mancini Institute's electronic music composition workshop at the Los Angeles High School of the Arts and IAWM's International Congress of Women in Music in London. In July 2004, Alex was the Composer-in-Residence and Festival Forum Moderator at The Walden School, and in February 2006 she was the Composer-in-Residence and Moderator for the New Music Festival at Santa Clara University. In February 2006, Alex was a guest once again at the University of California at Santa Barbara, giving a talk to the school's composition students titled Out in the World: The Notes Ahead, and in October 2006 she was composer-in-residence and Keynote Speaker at the Society of Composers, Inc. National Student Conference held at Arizona State University.

 
Schrader-Grenader-Shapiro
Alex with Los Angeles composers Barry Schrader and Peter Grenader, February 2006.
Alex in the lavender fields of San Juan Island with composer Anne LeBaron, July 2011.
LeBaron-Shapiro
Bond-Shapiro-Kraft
Alex with bassist/composer Jimmy Bond and percussionist/composer Bill Kraft in Los Angeles, August 2006.
     
  Jazz, Film & Television Scores  
 
Alex Shapiro worked for fifteen years in the commercial music world, scoring feature films, television shows, commercials and documentaries.
As featured inn

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reporter article

Reporter article Reporter article

Film and TV Music Special Issue of The Hollywood Reporter, 1994 (Alex, top right)

Film and TV Music Special Issue of The Hollywood Reporter, 1995

     

Alex's music is the soundtrack for the 2011 short art video, REFLECTION, the latest offering from artist Grimanesa Amoros. The video is showing in the International Streaming Festival, Sixth Edition at the Hague in the Netherlands, from December 1st to December 18th, 2011. It will also be screening in Milan, Italy, and on Video Art World. REFLECTION will be included in Amoros's 2013 Video Retrospective in Lima, Peru. An excerpt of the video can be seen here

Amoros video, REFLECTION

 

For full information and many audio clips, visit Film/TV/Jazz more
 

Shapiro-Lang
Alex with pianist Mike Lang in Los Angeles, September 2005.

  Community Involvement  

Alex Shapiro

Alex ShapiroAlex's life in the San Juan Islands
when she's not in her studio.

Along with her involvement in the music industry, Ms. Shapiro has distinguished herself in an additional area of passionate pursuit— civil liberties. She served on the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California from 1990 to 1996; as Vice President of the nation's largest, 30,000 member affiliate, Ms. Shapiro frequently appeared on radio and television broadcasts as a spokesperson for a wide variety of individual and artistic freedoms.


In her capacity as the Chairperson of the ACLU/SC's State and National Legislation Committee, she produced three Conferences that brought State senators, Assembly members, clergy and community leaders together for day-long seminars to openly debate current issues, often related to the same free speech and First Amendment rights upon which all artists rely. Alex is the recipient of three awards from the ACLU honoring her activism, including being named the 1993 Chapter Activist of the Year.

As a certified sailor, a sea kayaker and an avid tide-pooler, Alex's daily life reflects her love of marine biology. In 2008 she was honored to join the Development Advisory Board of the renowned University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories.

Alex's career has become representative of the way the internet and digital technology have given anyone with a computer the ability to create a global presence, as demonstrated in this quote:

Excerpt from the prepared remarks of Chairman Julius Genachowski
Federal Communications Commission
Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit
Washington, D.C., October 5, 2009

"Now, why is the adoption of fair rules of the road -- Net Neutrality rules -- so important? Well, the artists, songwriters, and independent producers in the music industry know better than most. For example, at a recent public workshop held at the FCC we heard Alex Shapiro who discussed how the Internet allows her to manage her career even from rural Washington State. Let me read from her testimony: "My name is Alex Shapiro, and I'm a composer. My use of the Internet has significantly shaped the evolution of my career, and has allowed me to reach audiences around the world, obtain commissions, and sell recordings and scores -- all from a fairly isolated outpost on a bridge-less island in Washington State."

Her point is an essential one. You don't have to be Bruce Springsteen to reach your audience on the Internet. You can be an independent artist on an island -- whether literal or musical -- and reach everyone who has an Internet connection."

     
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Professional Affiliations  
The following organizations are of interest to readers looking for
more information, and may be of particular assistance to composers
seeking ways to further their careers:
   
  Writer and Publisher member of ASCAP
  Publisher member, National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA)
  Voting member, The Recording Academy (NARAS; The Grammys)
  Concert music composer representative, Board of Review, ASCAP
  Past board member, American Music Center
  Member, Board, The MacDowell Colony
  Member, Symphony & Concert Committee, ASCAP
  Chairperson, Media Council, New Music USA
  Member, Alumni Council, Manhattan School of Music
  Member, past President, American Composers Forum of Los Angeles
  Member, past Vice President, The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL)
  Member, past officer, NACUSA (National Association of Composers, USA)
  Member, past officer, The College Music Society, Pacific Southern Chapter
  Member, American Composers Forum
  Member, Chamber Music America
  Member, Electronic Music Foundation
  Member, SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S.)
  Member, Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI)
  Member, International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM)
  Member, ACME, Mu Phi Epsilon
  Member, Mu Phi Epsilon International Committee
  Member, Mu Phi Epsilon
  Member, Sigma Alpha Iota Composers Bureau
  Member, The Dominant Club Music Association
  Member, Alumni Council, Manhattan School of Music
  Member, Board, Mladi Chamber Orchestra
  Member, VTEA Advisory Council, Los Angeles City College Music Department
  Member, Advisory Board, Kalvos and Damian's New Music Bazaar
  Fellowship panelist, 2004, The McKnight Foundation
  Fellowship recipient, 2000, California Arts Council
  Fellowship recipient, 2003-2004, The MacDowell Colony
  Biography listed in Marquis' Who's Who in America
  Member, Development Advisory Board, University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories
   
   
For additional helpful resources, visit Links more
 
     
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Contact and Press Kit  
 
To obtain a
short program bio for print,
please click here
Program Bio
Program Bio
To obtain program notes
for any of Ms. Shapiro's works,
please click here
Program notes
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please click here
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bio/C.V. for print,
please click here
Bio
Bio
To download a .pdf of a
narrative bio for print,
please click here
Bio
Bio
To download a .pdf of the complete
Activist Music catalog,
please click here
Bio
Catalog

To contact Alex Shapiro,
email is best.
Click here to send Alex a note
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You can also leave
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(270) 916-0093

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Interact with the composer!
See Alex in the context of the world around her, through the nature-oriented lens of her popular blog, Notes from the Kelp, and in the social networks.

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Daily Life
 
 
Friday Harbor view
The San Juan Islands
 

The ocean is a significant part of Alex's life, and if Alex wasn't a musician, she'd probably be a marine biologist. Click above for local information about this beautiful environment which inspires her music.

How else does Alex spend her time? In addition to being a sailor, she loves ocean kayaking and used to be an avid downhill skier until she accepted that gravity is not just a concept, it's a law. Alex tries to balance her music life with her love of the outdoors and the intoxicating scent of SPF 50 sunscreen.

For more local photos, and Alex's observations about music and everything that inspires it, visit Alex's blog, Notes from the Kelp.

 

 
 
 
Alex at the helm

Cap'n Al at the helm of her
first sloop, "Sea Natural."

 

 

 

 

 

T
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