(and... speaker... essayist. activist... naturalist photo-blogger. fun person.) |
"[Shapiro's music is] enough to give one hope for the contemporary music scene." All Music Guide |
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Alex Shapiro's unique music career is a happy, multifaceted one, in which she spends her time:
Composing a lot of music (often for chamber ensembles and symphonic wind bands, sometimes paired with prerecorded audio soundscapes)
Speaking at events, residencies, and conferences around the world and virtually
Participating on advocacy boards and committees
Writing articles and essays
and Photo-blogging wildlife from the remote island on which she creates!
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"...Shapiro has tremendous technical skills, a deep connection to nature, and an engaging and articulate personality that has gotten her multifariously involved in the new-classical-music world… She gets more performances than any one person could attend, and despite her nature wonderland she’s socially inclined…"
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The two large photos above, and all other views and landscapes throughout this website were taken by Alex, from and around her home in the San Juan Islands, Washington State, USA.
Get a sense of Alex, as she responds to the question, |
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MUSIC FOR LARGE ENSEMBLES: Below is a list of what's on the reel. Click HERE to see the excerpts
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Got 36 minutes? Get comfortable, settle in with a beverage, and click above to watch the most personal video to date from Alex, thanks to an invitation from Composers Now to join its IMPACT series.
Filled with nature and wildlife, puns and pith, and a remarkably broad selection of Alex's music from solo piano to huge electroacoustic ensembles, this unusual multimedia essay premiered August 2, 2022 and offers a striking, holistic view into Alex's world.
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Curious to hear about Alex's process in composing and producing the large-scale electroacoustic pieces that have kept her very busy for many years?
CLICK THE PIC ABOVE to hear what she had to say about her approach to her work--including her new wind symphony, SUSPENDED, and about the past, present and future of electroacoustic writing, during an interview witih conductor and composer Michael Shapiro (no relation) in May 2021 for his webcast INTERPLAY.
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Do you love tuba music as much as Alex loves the tuba? Tubist Gretchen Renshaw and 24 additional low brass musicians commissioned Alex to compose an electroacoustic work for solo tuba, and the result is CHRONICLE, which Gretchen premiered on August 16, 2024 in Mito City, Japan at the International Women's Brass Conference. It's a nine-minute piece that's unlike anything in the instrument's repertoire, venturing seamlessly from a 12-tone row, to a jazz ballad, to a majestic cinematic theme that sounds like a scene from the best kind of blockbuster movie-- the one in a listener's mind.
Listen to Gretchen's performance of CHRONICLE:
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In December 2024 Alex will join conductors Gregory X. Whitmore and William Tonissen and composer Michael Markowski at The Midwest Clinic in Chicago, presenting an action-packed session on the future of wind band music titled, The Band Director's Toolbox: Fusing Innovative Programming and Immersive Ensemble Rehearsal Techniques.
Alex had a GREAT time presenting a multimedia clinic on artificial intelligence, immersive performances, and their impact on concerts and education, at the College Band Directors National Association Western/Northwestern Division Conference on March 29, 2024. Speaking at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, Alex (or was it her avatar?) described (as written by GTP4, or by her??) the many exciting (and sometimes terrifying) options ahead that are permanently changing the field.
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"Sit up straight!". "Stretch out your diaphragm!". "Folks in the back: no slumping!".
Hear a demo of SLUMP:
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The Chicago-based Wurtz-Berger Duo dropped their new album Touching Rapture on March 24th 2024. It features new works for cello and piano composed by Tina Davidson, Laura Elise Schwendinger and Amy Wurtz, and opens with Alex's dramatic duet OF WOOD AND TOUCH. Click the album cover to listen!
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Conductor Vu Nguyen's latest recording project is From a Deep Blue Sky, an album of new works for winds performed by the members of the University of the Pacific Wind Bands in California. It includes pieces by Kevin Day, Viet Cuong, and Brian Bui, and ends with Alex's brooding electroacoustic sextet TRAIN OF THOUGHT. |
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Does your life lack the luster and shine that can only come from hearing a lively podcast conversation while you brush your teeth, get dressed, and sip your coffee while doom-scrolling the news on your phone?
Well, no longer! |
Is there a sonic hole in your day that would benefit from the cheery background patter of three musicians gabbing? And if those three musicians didn't just talk about music, but also about everything from the Manhattan island scene in the 70s, the San Juan Island scene in the 2020s, and a very slithery scene somewhere in Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s, would that entertain you?
Well, it entertained Alex and the wonderful podcast hosts of Beyond Artless Phil Ostrander and Peter Haberman! Fill that sonic hole in your day and join them by clicking HERE! |
If the... uh... slithery part of the Beyond Artless conversation piqued your interest, then you'll definitely want to listen to one of the funniest podcast conversations Alex has ever had with Dylan Maddix and Cait Nishimura on their show The Band Room. For more information about herpetological fetishes than you could possibly imagine, click HERE! For many more podcasts, webcasts, and unexpectedly candid moments with Alex, visit THIS PAGE! |
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Activist Music was featured prominently at the December 2023 Midwest Clinic in Chicago, thanks to Alex's largest distributor Hal Leonard devoting an entire end-cap display rack to her large ensemble catalog! With its convenient spot at the conference entrance, Alex merely had to stick out her foot and "accidentally" trip people, causing them to fall into her display and feel obligated to buy her scores. Thanks, Hal Leonard! |
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June 12th-16th in New York City is known as Music Week, but Alex jokingly calls it Annual Acronym Week. She was back in her home town of Manhattan for the board meetings of ASCAP, the ASCAP Foundation, and the MPA (Music Publishers Association of the United States), as well as annual events for the NMPA (National Music Publishers' Association) and SHoF (Songwriters Hall of Fame).
Each of these organizations advocates tirelessly for creators, copyright, and these days, for the workable co-existence of artificially generated intelligence and biologically generated music-makers! Click each photo for a closer look at a lot of smiles.
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L-R: Publicist and publisher Trudy Chan, composer and editor Frank Oteri, MPA Executive Director Brittain Ashford, MPA board member Norman Ryan (Schott Music/EAMDC), Alex, MPA board member Daniel Dorff (Theodore Presser), ASCAP's Cia Toscanini and Michael Spudic, and MPA board member Dennis Tobenski (NewMusicShelf).
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Between May 29 and June 3 2023, Alex steeped herself in the low brass world at the International Tuba and Euphonium Association conference in Tempe, Arizona. Her sonata for tuba and piano, MUSIC FOR TWO BIG INSTRUMENTS, was among the required competition pieces in the Solo Tuba, Artist Division category, and was also heard in concert by Kevin Waas and pianist Susan Waas-- with four dancers performing to it, as well! Wanna see an excerpt? Click HERE.
And thanks to a commission from Matt Hightower at University of Kentucky, a fresh electroacoustic piece for tuba and euphonium ensemble titled DEPTH SOUNDING was masterfully premiered at the conference on May 31st during the first main concert at Gammage Hall. Click below to listen, or you can watch the performance on the piece's webpage linked above!
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Listen to DEPTH SOUNDING: |
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On March 19th 2023, San Jose State University hosted the SJSU Honors Wind Ensemble and Alex was their Composer-in-Residence. Two different honor bands performed concerts that included Alex's electroacoustic works TIGHT SQUEEZE (conducted by David Vickerman) and OFF THE EDGE (conducted by Craig McKenzie), and the San Jose State University Wind Ensemble performed Alex's newest acoustic band piece, FREE, also conducted by David Vickerman.
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The 2023 Capital University NOW MUSIC Festival featured composer Alex Shapiro. Her residency from February 21-26 included a keynote address, a series of concerts of the wind band, jazz, chamber, and solo repertoire performed by the faculty, students, and other local musicians and ensembles, and masterclasses with students and composers.
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Of the roughly 200 pieces in Alex's diverse concert catalog from the past 25 years, all but one of them was composed, premiered, published, patted on the head, and sent out into the world by the composer to make friends with more musicians while she moved on to other things. Like writing the next piece. Or scooping out the cat litter box. Yes, all but one: ARCHIPELAGO.
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Hear a demo of ARCHIPELAGO (download!):
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A peek into what makes Alex tick (and, tock) can be gleaned from this wonderful profile piece that Amanda Cook wrote for I Care If You Listen, published in May 2023. Click on either icon to the right to read it online, or to download it, click HERE. |
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On November 5th 2022, Alex was a Keynote speaker at the 2022 NAfME National Conference in Washington, D.C., in a more thrilling than you can even imagine conversation, joined by Brian Nabors and moderated by Rob Deemer. The session wasn't recorded, so you'll just have to trust us about how thrilling it really was!
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Alex's most recent guest appearance was on October 11, 2022, for the podcast Enhance Life With Music. Host Mindy Peterson invited Alex, who has held the sole Symphonic & Concert writer seat on the Board of Directors of ASCAP since 2014, to explain to listeners exactly what the non-profit organization does. The resulting 38 minute conversation is an illuminating look into ASCAP's history as the oldest performing rights society in the U.S., and its many remarkable programs including career resources, civic and social initiatives, technology, wellness, and legislative advocacy. Click HERE to listen!
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Listen to AIRBORNE:
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July 13, 2021 at the DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Alex's four-movement symphony for winds, percussion, and pre-recorded soundscape, SUSPENDED, was premiered. Conducted by Cynthia Johnston Turner and commissioned by Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma for their National Intercollegiate Band and Convention, it is Alex's most dramatic and emotional reflection to date: addressing not only the pandemic, but the many troubling, ongoing issues of the times. Dr. Johnston Turner gave a second performance of the symphony on March 23rd 2022, leading the Eastman Wind Ensemble at Kodak Hall in Rochester, NY.
Listen to SUSPENDED: |
Concurrent with the premiere of her second symphony, SUSPENDED, commissioned by Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma for their July 2021 National Intercollegiate Band, Alex was made an Honorary Brother of both fraternities, and awarded Tau Beta Sigma's "Outstanding Service to Music Award". |
Alex was delighted to be the 2022 Commissioned Composer for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Her work with the students culminated with UWRF's 56th Annual Commissioned Composer concert on April 21, 2022. ß
Listen to FREE: |
Much of the year 2020 can be epitomized by the concept of being deprived of breath. From the lung-destroying effects of COVID-19, to the murderous strangulations of police brutality. From the searing, choking walls of wildfire smoke, to the smothering treason of politicians attempting to asphyxiate democracy.
Listen to BREATHE: |
Alex created an unusual, sound design-heavy electroacoustic concert opener for wind band, ASCENT. It was scheduled to be performed by the University of Hawai'i Wind Ensemble conducted by lead commissioner Jeffrey Boeckman at the CBDNA Western/Northwestern Division Conference in Tacoma, WA on March 19, 2020, but we all know what happened to this and every other conference across the world that month. The work was commissioned by 25 ensembles from the U.S. and Canada.
Also featured at the conference on March 20th would have been Alex's band work MOMENT, performed by the University of Alberta Symphonic Wind Ensemble conducted by Angela Schroeder, and a presentation on large ensemble multimedia works and social activism that Alex was looking forward to giving, with University of British Columbia Director of Bands Rob Taylor, and University of Puget Sound Director of Bands Gerard Morris.
Nonetheless, right before all the concert cancellations, the University of Hawai'i Wind Ensemble was able to perform ASCENT a couple of times for their local island audiences. You can hear the fantastic job they did for the Honolulu premiere by clicking on the links below.
Listen to ASCENT: |
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Alex has composed an emotional electroacoustic work for SATB choir, titled O DEATH ROCK ME ASLEEP. The dramatic piece is set to a moving text penned by Anne Boleyn while imprisoned in the Tower of London as she awaited her beheading. Commissioned by Suzi Digby and The Golden Bridge, the new work premiered in Beverly Hills, CA. on September 7, 2019.
Click here to listen to, or watch,
Listen to O DEATH ROCK ME ASLEEP: |
Band director Jim Mobley loves the fresh genre of electroacoustic wind band music, and believes that there should be more such pieces in the repertoire— especially for younger musicians to perform. He put together the N-BEAM consortium, which over the course of three years, has supported the addition of three new Grade 2.5 EA works to the concert band world. Composers Daniel Montoya Jr. and Benjamin Taylor wrote their pieces-- TECHNO BLADE, and AXE TO GRIND, respectively-- for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, and in 2020, Alex delivered OFF THE EDGE, to its 35 commissioning ensembles.
Have a listen to Alex's pop-EDM/Euro-disco approach to music for middle schoolers: and play it loudly!
Listen to OFF THE EDGE:
Want to witness just how ridiculous three composers and a band director can be under the glare of conference floor lights at the Midwest Clinic? Click here:
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A [non-performing!] pianist herself, Alex has always loved composing for the instrument. Pianist Adam Marks recorded all of Alex's solo piano works for a gorgeous album on innova Recordings titled ARCANA. The collection was released on August 28, 2020, and if you visit the dedicated page for the [slightly unusual] project, you can read about it and enjoy preview excerpts, and videos!
The March-April 2021 issue of American Record Guide includes a glowing review of the entire album, penned by Stephanie Ann Boyd, who concludes with, "This disc is a triumph and I highly recommend spending time with the work of these two artists." Click HERE to read the entire review of ARCANA on Ms. Boyd's website.
Activist Music has published a collection of Alex Shapiro's solo piano works, available at a discounted rate as a set of .pdf downloads. Ranging from short offerings to those with multiple movements, these idiomatic pieces reveal an especially personal musical world. For complete information about the published collection, click HERE.
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Three of Alex's most recent electroacoustic wind band works from 2020 and 2021 were heard at the CBDNA Western/Northwestern conference at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA in mid-March 2022.
Jeff Boeckman's presentation on his Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds project included the music video for Alex's concert opener ASCENT, David Vickerman's concert with the SJSU Wind Ensemble included the fourth movement of Alex's latest symphony SUSPENDED, titled VIRAL, and BREATHE was heard on Ed Powell's Pacific Lutheran University Wind Ensemble concert.
Alex also joined her colleagues Rob Taylor, and composers Viet Cuong, Joel Puckett and Rob Hutchinson on a 90 minute composer forum talk that dove head first into a great many topics relevant to the conductors in the audience!
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Alex is proud to be a clinician for Conn-Selmer, and is available to speak to groups on myriad topics ranging from technology, DEI initiatives, copyright and business, activism, and the art of composition.
As part of the Winter 2022 Music Educator Master Class series, New Beginnings: Rehearse and Renew, Alex gave a webinar titled "Music and Activism: Raising Awareness One Note at a Time" in which she offered powerful examples of the power possessed by music educators and creators to raise musician and audience awareness of social and environmental topics.
In April 2022, Alex had the pleasure of being hosted by Dr. Paula Crider as they walked the audience through Alex's latest symphony, SUSPENDED during her interview for Conn-Selmer's Concert Artistry series.
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Alex was the guest composer at the Total Band Director Workshop, held July 28 & 29 at Rush Creek Golf Course in Maple Grove, Minnesota.
Hosted by Eckroth Music and sponsored by Hal Leonard, J.W. Pepper, Yamaha, and Conn & Selmer, this annual event is an intensive workshop for band directors that provides new tools, materials, and fresh perspectives on the field.
Alex gave presentations on electroacoustic music, multimedia, and the power of sharing environmental and social messages through music and the impact performances can have on raising audience awareness. Additionally, there was an electroacoustic "petting zoo" reading session, during which directors played excerpts from a selection of Alex's EA band works and learned how to set up the tech and become comfortable with a click track!
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Alex was a clinician on two panels at the 2021 Midwest Clinic in Chicago.
Embedding Social Emotional Learning in Instrumental Music Education explored creative approaches to bringing out the best in students, and Alex-- appearing via a multimedia video presentation- was joined by co-hosts Scott Edgar and Bob Morrison of Music for All, and composers Brian Balmages, Cait Nishimura, Richard Saucedo, Jim Stephenson, and Omar Thomas. You can watch the session HERE.
Alex is also pleased to be a clinician for Music for All, and has participated in several of their field-expanding webinars.
The Horizon Leans Forward… A Panel Discussion on the Issues of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in the Wind Band Field offered a frank conversation among Alex's composer and conductor co-authors Erik Leung, Courtney Snyder, Alfred Watkins, Rob Taylor, and Jodie Blackshaw.
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Alex gave one of her favorite online multimedia presentations at "Unmasking Music Education"-- the Nova Scotia Music Educators Association Conference. Titled, "Music with Messages: The Impact of Activism through Art," Alex uses selected multimedia electroacoustic band works from her catalog to exemplify the powerful connection that can be had between the arts, technology, and the world around us. |
In June 2020, CBDNA launched a YouTube series and kicked it off with Alex's presentation, Impact and Activism: Multimedia and the Wind Band World. She was joined by conductors Gerard Morris and Rob Taylor, and you can watch the inspiring webinar by clicking the icon on the right!
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Alex has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Music Publishers Association of the United States, representing her publishing company Activist Music. She is the MPA's first independent member whose company publishes solely her own catalog. Click here to delve into the remarkable collection of resources and information offered on the MPA website, and to learn more about the broad scope of advocacy the organization provides for the concert music and educational world.
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Alex Shapiro became ASCAP's elected representative on the Executive Committee of The International Council Of Music Authors (CIAM)— the writers council of CISAC, a global network of authors' societies that represents 4 million creators in 121 countries. CIAM members convene several times a year in cities around the world to address the many ways to fiercely protect the rights of composers, authors and copyright holders so that they're properly remunerated for the commercial uses of their work.
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Alex is honored to have been elected to the Board of Directors of The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, which provides financial support for myriad composers and ensembles seeking assistance in launching recording and performance projects, and handles permissions for uses of Copland's music. Click here to peruse the site!
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Alex was elected by the membership to the Board of Directors of ASCAP as the sole Symphonic & Concert writer representative. She began serving in this capacity in April 2014 when she was elected by the board to fill the mid-term vacancy of the seat previously held for over twenty years by the late, esteemed composer Stephen Paulus. Alex is the first woman to hold this seat since ASCAP's founding in 1914.
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New Music USA is a national arts advocacy organization which provides over $1 million each year in grant support for the creation and performance of new work and community-building throughout the country. Alex was an inaugural co-chair of its Program Council, an advisory committee of people working in the field.
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Alex is pleased to serve as a member of the Columbia College Chicago Music Department Advisory Panel, exploring what contemporary education should offer to students to best prepare them for productive, happy careers.
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Composers Now is an important organization that celebrates the diverse music of living composers, and Alex is delighted to have joined its Distinguished Mentors Council. Click here to learn about its upcoming events throughout the year!
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Alex was elected to the Board of Directors of The ASCAP Foundation, which provides funding for a remarkably broad scope of composers and performers working in nearly every genre. In December 2021 Alex was elected as an officer and is one of the five members of the Foundation's Executive Committee. Click here to peruse the site!
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Alex became one of 12 writer and 12 publisher members of ASCAP's board of directors in 2014. Since most of the 900,000 members haven't met their representatives, ASCAP launched a series of "meet the board" videos in 2017. Here's Alex's: |
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Alex has often gone to Capitol Hill where each spring, members of the Board of Directors of ASCAP and writer members who are strong copyright advocates meet with Senators, members of Congress, and their aides, to keep the message of fair compensation for music creators front and center. Known as "Stand with Songwriters" Advocacy Day, the office visits are preceded by an inspiring evening concert at the Library of Congress called, "We Write the Songs," where policy makers enjoy performances by some of the world's top ASCAP creators.
Over the years Alex has spoken with many Representatives, including Joaquin Castro (D-TX), pictured here in May 2016 with Alex and ASCAP board President and Chairman Paul Williams. |
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With ASCAP board President and Chairman
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Alex was in Tokyo, Japan in late May 2019 for meetings with her colleagues on the Executive Committee of The International Council Of Music Authors (CIAM)— the writers council of CISAC.
While there, she and several CIAM ExCo members gave a workshop hosted by Japan's collective management society JASRAC, for an auditorium of Japanese music creators, addressing local and international copyright issues.
In January 2019 during the CIAM ExCo meetings in Cabo Verde, Africa, Alex participated in career and copyright workshops with her CIAM ExCo writer colleagues.
In November 2018 in Mexico City, Alex was with her writer colleagues on the CIAM ExCo at the Annual CIAM Congress in Mexico City. She moderated a panel discussion with music creators from Australia, Europe, Canada, and South America, discussing not only the problems of far-reaching biases, but the solutions. Also in attendance were ASCAP President and Chairman Paull Williams, and ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews.
Alex again joined her international writer colleagues on the CIAM ExCo at the May 2018 CISAC General Assembly meeting in Warsaw, Poland, at which she spoke on a panel addressing gender inequity issues throughout the music industry. You can read about it by clicking here.
CIAM addresses issues ranging from global copyright and royalty payment improvements, to transfer of value, fair trade music, blockchain potential, and much more, in an effort to advance the wellbeing of music creators around the world.
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Speaking in Mexico City, 2018 |
Speaking in Warsaw, 2018 |
Speaking in Tokyo, 2017
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Giving a workshop |
Working in Lisbon, 2017 |
Giving a workshop |
The ASCAP EXPO-- now known as the ASCAP EXPERIENCE-- brings artists from every genre together in Hollywood for an inspiring conference of workshops, panels, performances and networking. In 2017 Alex spoke on a panel titled "Getting Credit Where Credit is Due," addressing the need for accurate attribution across all genres and in all uses of digital media, alongside songwriter and performer Aloe Blacc, songwriter and fellow ASCAP Board member Desmond Child, attorney and panel moderator Dina LaPolt, and Auddly founder Niclas Molinder (pictured L-R). You can read about the animated discussion-- which included comments from Pandora's head of publisher licensing Adam Parness during the Q&A by clicking here.
At the 2016 EXPO, Alex gave a lively presentation on a panel about creative uses of multimedia in concert music, titled "Seeing Music: Multimedia Concerts for a Visual World." Pictured L-R: Composer Veronika Krausas, Alex, visualists Candace Reckinger and Michael Patterson, and ASCAP VP of Concert Music Cia Toscanini.
Alex has been a speaker at nearly all of the ASCAP EXPOS-- now called The ASCAP Experience-- since the annual conference was launched in 2005. |
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The annual ASCAP Foundation Awards event in New York City honors emerging and distinguished music creators from a broad array of genres. For information, click here
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Presenting composer Morten Lauridsen with the |
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Alex enjoyed a VERY spirited conversation with The Band Room Podcast's cohosts conductor Dylan Maddix and composer Cait Nishimura about why she loves the band community, how her environment influences her work, and how she overcomes creative blocks and anxiety, as well as her thoughts about adaptable music and the future of music publishing. |
Additionally, the Band Room Podcast features a bonus episode for its listeners-- and in the case of Alex's, you'll be rewarded with what is undoubtedly one of the most unusual, if truly bizarre, composer hobby stories— information that until now, Alex had never shared in a public format! If you could use a laugh, click HERE to listen! |
One of Alex's favorite 2020 conversations was with conductor Aaron Noe for his webcast Wind Conductor. They discussed a remarkably broad range of topics, including taking a deep dive into upcoming technogies destined to have a profound effect on musicians. Click the icon at right to watch. |
If you have a longing for lounge-chill funk timpani or want to understand the finer theory of whale-tempered tuning, now's your chance! Plus a legally indemnifying disclaimer: no flutists were harmed in the making of the wild effects you'll hear in one of the six eclectic works from Alex's diverse catalog that you'll hear on this revealing episode of Relevant Tones. Should anyone want a quick tour of the chaos that swirls in her head, Seth Boustead has generously provided the portal! |
Beloved band director Charlie Menghini launched a new podcast series of conversations with composers, conductors, and educators, Band Talk with Charlie Menghini and Friends, and Alex was the first of his guests for Episode 2. Click the icon at right to have a listen. |
Alex really enjoyed talking with Mark J. Connor as a guest on his popular podcast, Everything Band. Covering everything from career to clarinet-playing gerbils (!), it was a far-ranging chat! Click the icon at right to have a listen. |
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Alex spent the better part of an afternoon chatting about the business and philosophical aspects of a happy composing career, with composer and The Portfolio Composer podcast host Garrett Hope. Their wide-ranging conversation over bourbon in Alex's San Juan Island, WA living room, is posted in two March 2016 parts, and you can hear it above. |
Alex was the inaugural guest for composer Tobenski's new series, Music Publishing Podcast. Despite some technical issues with a Hangout connection that apparently had Alex reaching for her snorkel, she and Dennis had an excellent conversation about the business of being a busy composer.
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Alex returned to MPP to join co-hosts Dennis Tobenski and mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen for a discussion about the wide range of creative commissioning techniques available to performers and composers. Click to hear Alex's Plan A,B,C,D and beyond!
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Alex appears in three of director Michael Stillwater's documentary films: Shining Night, Beyond the Fear of Singing, and In Search of the Great Song. Click below to listen to a short excerpt from the latter, filmed at Alex's home on San Juan Island, WA. and scored with her piece BELOW. Alex shares her thoughts about how the sea inspires her muses. |
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Speaking as an artist: hear Alex's response when asked to describe how she composes, in this :60 excerpt from a June 2010 interview she gave to Carey Nadeau from the American Composers Forum: |
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The 2020 Innova Recordings release of Alex's album, ARCANA, is a collection of her complete solo piano music until 2020, beautifully recorded by pianist Adam Marks. To read about the project and hear excerpts, click here ![]() |
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Purchase a copy, or download: |
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The 2007 Innova Recordings release of Alex's album, NOTES FROM THE KELP, is a collection of eight of Alex's representative chamber works. To read about the music and hear excerpts, click here ![]() |
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Add some algae to your life and buy a disc or a download: |
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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 |
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Above and Beyond: Bioplasm |
Solo Rumores: Luvina |
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Garrison Piano Competition: Scherzo |
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Californian Concert: For My Father |
Excelsior: Perpetual Spark |
250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven: Chord History |
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2021 National Intercollegiate Band Suspended |
Beck and Call: Of Breath & Touch Deep |
Everything Beautiful: Liquid Compass Tight Squeeze |
Intermezzo/DJ Creme Brulee: Intermezzo |
Fresh Wind Desert Thoughts |
Below Below |
Double or Nothing: Deep |
Best of Pacific 2020 Tight Squeeze |
Touching Rapture Of Wood and Touch |
From a Deep Blue Sky Train of Thought |
Alex Shapiro/Adam Marks: Arcana |
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The best thing about composers' websites is that they're sonic business cards! Click the MP3 icon to hear an excerpt. Click the title to learn more about it. Alex's education and career have allowed her voice to be expressed in music for... |
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MUSIC FOR LARGE ENSEMBLES: Below is a list of what's on the reel. Click any title to see the excerpts, |
DOWNLOAD to listen later: |
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00:26 |
Grade 4 |
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Grade 4+ |
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02:32 |
Grade 4 |
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03:28 |
Grade 4 |
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04:43 |
Grade 5 |
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05:42 |
Grade 4+ |
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06:40 |
Grade 3 |
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07:30 |
Grade 4+ |
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Grade 2.5 |
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09:30 |
Grade 4+ |
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10:54 |
Grade 5 |
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11:45 |
Grade 4 |
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12:52 |
Grade 5 |
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13:35 |
Grade 5 |
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15:07 |
Grade 2 |
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15:47 |
Grade 4+ |
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16:42 |
Grade 3 and beyond |
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Grade 0.5 and beyond |
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Grade 4+ |
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Grade 5 |
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Grade 5 |
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Alex calls herself a pan-genre composer, with a penchant for organically spanning across idioms, often within a single piece. One of the most welcoming sonic worlds for her unique voice has been that of symphonic wind band, for which she's been composing electroacoustic works unlike anything else in the repertoire, for musicians ranging from virtuoso professionals to absolute beginners. |
EASIER |
MODERATE |
ADVANCED |
(wind band, optional audio track) |
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(wind band, rocks, audio track; |
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AIRBORNE (wind band; |
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How did this mostly-chamber music composer get into writing for symphonic band? Listen to Alex describe how it happened, in this two-minute excerpt from an interview she gave to Carey Nadeau from the American Composers Forum in June 2010. |
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Venture to the depths of the sea with the plaintive song of a Humpback whale as your guide, and listen to the Fox Valley Orchestra in Aurora, Illinois, conducted by Stephen Squires. |
This sextet for flute/piccolo, violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano was premiered by Fifth House Ensemble,which recorded the work fall 2013 for their 2014 CD on Cedille Records, Excelsior, produced by Judith Sherman. Featured as WQXR's Q2 Album of the Week in New York City, and one of Rhapsody's Top Ten Classical Albums for Sept. 2014, the track and what WQXR calls its "luminous energy" enjoys wide airplay across the U.S.
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This unusual piece for mixed percussion and prerecorded soundscape was premiered by its co-composer David Jarvis at Washington State University, during Alex's visit as the 2013 guest composer for WSU's Festival of Contemporary Art Music. The electroacoustic piece is the result of a very fun collaboration that brings the words "funk timpani" and "lounge chill" together for [we're guessing] the first time. Click here to read the story of how this happened. |
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Electroacoustic SATB choir |
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Alex's emotional work for string orchestra was very beautifully brought to an audience for the first time on August 6, 2013 in Washington D.C., by the U.S. Army Strings conducted by Major Tod. A. Addison. |
Alex's dramatic work set to prose written by Anne Boleyn in the Tower of London as she awaited her beheading. This recording from the premiere is of The Golden Bridge at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills on September 7, 2019, conducted by Suzi Digby.
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Here's a video Alex shot and scored with the second movement of her first symphony IMMERSION-- about the ocean and its fragile creatures. Although still related to being underwater, it has nothing to do with sea life! Performance by the University of Minnesota Symphonic Band, conducted by Jerry Luckhardt at Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, MN, February 2011. |
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Alex called upon her 15 years working in commercial music in Hollywood, and got into the team spirit with the Clemson University Tiger Band! In 2015 she was commissioned by band director Mark Spede to create the audio track to which Clemson University edited a video for the Jumbotron screens in its 85,000 seat Memorial stadium. The video-- which you can see below-- has played during every football game since September 2015, as the 290 musicians of the Tiger Marching Band pour out on to the field to perform. Go Tigers-- the 2016 National Champions! |
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Here's what it looked and sounded like on January 9, 2017, as the Clemson University Tiger Band entered the field at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida for the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship: |
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Alex Shapiro is very, very fortunate to have her works performed in hundreds of venues every year. A list of selected concerts for which she has information can be found by visting THIS PAGE.
If you have programmed a Shapiro work or have an upcoming concert date, please email the information— as well as a program, if possible— to Alex by clicking HERE. You'll be added to the Concerts page, and a smile will be added to Alex's face! Thanks!
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Alex is one of six co-authors of the new book, The Horizon Leans Forward...Stories of Courage, Strength, and Triumph of Underrepresented Communities in the Wind Band Field, released by GIA Publications December 2020.
Edited by conductor Erik Kar Jun Leung (Oregon State University), the book includes Ms. Shapiro's chapter, Reaching Out and Bringing Women In, along with those from composer Jodie Blackshaw and conductors Alfred L. Watkins, Robert Taylor (University of British Columbia), Courtney Snyder (University of Michigan), and Erik Leung, each of whom address perspectives of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA2S+ composers and conductors of the past and present.
Additionally, the publication includes a notable annotated bibliography of works by underrepresented composers. The six co-authors have done several compelling Zoominars about the book contents, and those links can be found in the diversity and includion section, HERE:
To read more about the book and to order a hard copy, click HERE:
To order the digital copy, click HERE: |
Alex is the author of "Releasing a Student's Inner Composer," one of the chapters in the 2013 book, "Musicianship: Composing in Band and Orchestra." The book, edited by Clint Randles and David Stringham, is published by GIA Publications. |
Alex's brain is about 8,000 words lighter after writing an extensive two-part article echoing the clinic presentations on new media in the band world that she gave at The 2013 Midwest Clinic and the 2014 Texas Music Educators Association Conference. The essay, titled The e-Frontier: Music, Multimedia, Education, and Audiences in the Digital World, appears in the June and September 2014 issues of the magazine of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, WASBE World.
Read the full article, |
Offering challenging thoughts on the new digital paradigm, the internet, free speech and the meaning of net neutrality to all artists, a number of Alex's articles have been published in essays for the online magazine NewMusicBox.
Read The Economy of Exposure: Read What I Learned About My Tiny Business Read As Important as the Printing Press: |
Greg Sandow is the author of an insightful blog on the future of classical music, and invited Alex to be a guest blogger in March 2013. Click here to see what she has to say about the fun of living in the middle of nowhere and being in the center of everywhere, in an essay titled E-ing there
And without question, the very best resource for Alex's musings can be found in the decade-worth of pixels and photographs of her blog, Notes from the Kelp.
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Alex's music is the soundtrack for REFLECTION, a short video created by artist Grimanesa Amoros. The video was premiered in December 2011 at the International Streaming Festival, Sixth Edition at the Hague in the Netherlands, and is included in Amoros's 2013 Video Retrospective in Lima, Peru.
An excerpt of the video can be seen here
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In a segment filmed at her San Juan Island home, Alex is featured speaking about composer Morten Lauridsen at the opening of a beautiful film about his life and music, titled Shining Night. Winner of Best Documentary at the 2012 Washington, D.C. Independent Film Festival, the film was directed by Michael Stillwater, and has been screening at festivals in the U.S. and Europe in conjunction with the release of the DVD. You can enjoy a trailer of the film here.
Alex also appears in a longer segment at the opening Stillwater's 2015 documentary, In Search of the Great Song, which is the winner of the award for Best Documentary from the 2016 Moondance International Film Festival in Boulder, CO. Alex speaks about the many inspirations for her music that are found in the natural world surrounding her, as BELOW, in which she features a Humpback whale song, plays as the underscore.
In Michael Stillwater's third film, Beyond the Fear of Singing, Alex talks about non-musicians freely embracing the freedom of expression.
You can enjoy previews of all three beautiful documentaries here.
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Visitors to Alex's blog know she's rarely without her camera, and her photos have been used for other people's CD covers and websites.
Alex is one of the winners of the 2012 IMA Marine Life Photography Contest, hosted by the San Juan Islands Museum of Art and judged by the legendary Ernest Brooks II.
Alex's photo of a Bald Eagle headed straight toward her hung in the museum throughout the summer, alongside Brooks's stunning Silver Seas exhibit. That bird also spent the summer of 2013 hanging in Seattle's Museum of Flight, as a selection for its Spirit of Flight exhibit.
The photo, Incoming!, (also a first prize winner at the 2012 San Juan County Fair!) can be viewed slightly larger, by clicking on the bird.
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Concurrent with the premiere of her second symphony, SUSPENDED, commissioned by Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma for their July 2021 National Intercollegiate Band, Alex was made an Honorary Brother of both fraternities, and awarded Tau Beta Sigma's "Outstanding Service to Music Award". |
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Sheet Music Plus features Alex and her career in a wide-ranging piece for its September 2019 Take Note blog. Read about the connection between music, activism, multimedia, and yes, even Beethoven, by clicking here.
Minnesota Public Radio's Your Classical division created a Top Ten list of wind band composers, to expand the public's knowledge of the genre. Alex [randomly!] came in at #2 after Sousa. You can peruse the list by clicking here. |
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Composers Datebook is a daily two-minute syndicated radio program produced by American Public Media in association with the American Composers Forum. The series highlights moments in music history of the past and the present, and its February 11th "on this date" segments feature Alex Shapiro and the anniversary of the premiere of her sonata for tuba and piano titled Music for Two Big Instruments. You can listen to the amusing description by clicking here and then clicking the "play" arrow at the top of the page. |
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COVID-19 has brought many challenges to university music programs, but in the face of limitations there are also positive opportunities. Rather than try to make something as precious as live ensemble performance exist in a format not yet designed for it, Alex gave some thought to what an online connection for students in band and orchestra can uniquely provide.
At the invitation of the University of Washington's Director of Bands Timothy Salzman, Alex came up with a syllabus for the students that reflects our current reality. Click to read the article about the successful project, Putting the E- in E-nsemble.
Between March and December 2020, Alex oversaw the curriculum with more than 30 universities and high schools, and the free syllabus continues to be used by educators at all levels, to bring the project to even more music students who discover an inner creativity they hadn't realized they possess.
If you would like to see the syllabus, just email Alex and she'll be happy to get it to you. She's available as a consultant, or to help you customize the course for your students and to Zoom in to work with them!
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Joining 11 of her peers, Alex co-founded the Creative Repertoire Initiative to encourage composers to create adaptable works for ensembles with varying personnel and rehearsal circumstances.
For this world in constant flux, Alex's 2020 electroacoustic work, PASSAGES, offers a calming, centering, meditative, and encouraging outlook for any combination of instruments. Each cellular phrase sounds beautiful whether stacked or exposed, and played with any of the chords in the accompaniment track. It's never quite the same piece twice, because musicians make random choices from a selection of melodies and rhythms of varying difficulty. The music is especially well suited for musicians recording themselves during distance learning sessions, and even for soloists wishing to improvise!
Stream an excerpt
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During the same period during which Alex composed her oh-so-very sophisticated second symphony SUSPENDED, she also composed her first piece for beginning music students, a 3-part plus percussion flex work titled COUNT TO TEN. Why? Because she believes that all living composers should be writing primers for the music of their time, by participating in the educational process and providing fresh, creative repertoire that can further inspire the students to keep playing!
Toddlers can count to ten, so surely, middle schoolers can count to nine! And once a young student can count to nine, meters in 5 and 7 won't be daunting. For a closer look at this unusual piece with an optional and REALLY GROOVY accompaniment track, click HERE:
Listen to COUNT TO TEN: |
KITCHEN SYNC was composed in 2021 as a very flexible stand-alone miniature that is also one fifth of a collective offering of similarly micro-length pieces titled SUITE TREATS. Composers & Schools Executive Director Lisa Oman and conductor and Creative Repertoire Initiative co-founder Robert Ambrose invited five founding members of CRI to add their voices to a compilation of brief, medium difficulty ensemble works designed to be highly adaptable.
Alex, along with composers Brian Balmages (Focal Point), Jennifer Jolley (Neoncore), Pete Meechan (Lullaby), and Frank Ticheli (Moving On), were each paired with high school wind band directors in different parts of the U.S., and engaged with the students online to come up with a fresh take on what can be accomplished musically-- in only about a minute. |
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More than a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic made online resources a necessity, Alex was among the earliest composers to use the web to connect with ensembles all over the world.
Alex really enjoys interacting in person with students and faculty during rehearsals and guest artist residencies in which she spends a few days at a university and gives master classes, private composition lessons, lectures on the changing paradigm of the music business, and attends rehearsals and performances of her music. But when budgets and schedules and, oh, y'know, global pandemics don't allow for travel, Zoom, Skype, Webex, Google Meet or anything similar have become the next best thing. |
Whether for a rehearsal of a concert wind band piece or chamber work, or to bring Alex right into your lecture hall for an interactive discussion about the music business, web video is a great tool. Alex's live feedback is valuable, and musicians love it when Alex turns her camera around to show them a source of her inspiration: the sea at her feet, with the occasional Bald Eagle or Orca whale gliding past. The technology brings a unique dimension into the art of collaborative music-making, and connects students to the person-- and sometimes to the very funny stories-- behind the notes on the music stands. |
Alex in her studio on San Juan Island, |
A webhearsal with Alex in her studio on San Juan Island, |
Alex looking on and reading the score, upper right,
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Internet networking sites have brought many wonderful collaborations and commissions to Alex's virtual doorstep. Enjoy watching one of her online friends, artist Simon Kenevan, make a pastel study for his painting 'Afternoon Sun,' to her Phos Hilaron: |
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Alex loves hearing from visitors, so don't be shy if you'd like to send her an email. To join the mailing list for concert information 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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Perhaps the best way to get to know Alex's music, is to get to know Alex through the personal offerings on her blog, Notes from the Kelp. Thousands of visitors join her on explorations of the San Juan Islands and beyond, using Alex's award-winning essays, photographs and music (and her sense of humor) as their guide. Scroll down this page to share life through Alex's eyes-- and ears.
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My compositions are a very personal expression, but I also write to give musicians pieces which they'll really enjoy playing, and to offer audiences music which will speak to them directly and emotionally. As with the sea which surrounds me here on San Juan Island, there's an ebb and flood to this happy relationship. I compose music because I have to, without expectation that others will resonate with it, yet with the hope that many might. My art is a tidepool, inviting others to enter and... with luck, thrive.
Composing is a lot like making love. We're trying to please ourselves. We're hoping to please at least one other person. And, we are in fact, communicating. Passionately. I compose to communicate, and ideally, my work will show you not only a glimpse of me, but a reflection of yourself.
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The intimacy of the magic triangle of composer, musicians and audience is what draws me to compose. In the midst of writing, I love exploring and balancing the voice of each instrument within a group, whether a small chamber ensemble or a symphonic band. When I have the opportunity to rehearse one of my pieces with players, it's exciting to be part of the volley of interpretations and personalities. Music lives through the art of others.
Finally, when the new piece is performed, the triangle between me, the musicians and the audience is complete. A musical idea which was formerly a personal impression has now become a public gesture.
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Among the many inspirations for my music has been the gorgeous coastal areas in which I've lived; water seems to be an inescapable theme in my life. I grew up in Manhattan overlooking first the East River, then later, I lived by the Hudson. At 21, I moved to southern California and spent most of my 24 years there at the shore in Malibu and even afloat on the water itself, living part-time on a sailboat in Santa Barbara.
Since 2007, it's been the serenity of Washington State's remote San Juan Island (TWICE the size of the island on which I grew up!) and the Salish Sea that makes my muses so happy. When I'm not composing, I'm marveling at the abundant shoreline life and tidepools directly in front of my house. This connection to the natural world has become as necessary to me now as urban life was to me years ago.
I've developed a little hobby of capturing in photographs the creatures and the small, yet remarkable moments that define my daily life here. This website is riddled with them, and you can experience more of this joy with me via my blog, Notes From the Kelp, and two personal Facebook pages that reflect my life here: San Juan Island's Golden Point, and the more recent San Juan Island's Mineral Point.
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No composer writes in a vacuum; our output is the result of musical history.
My own voice is inspired by the chromaticism and angularity of Alban Berg and Anton Webern, the lyricism of Johannes Brahms, Maurice Ravel and Bill Evans, and the rhythms of Middle Eastern and African cultures, and pretty much every genre of pop and commercial music. With luck, the notes come out sounding something like... Shapiro. You can listen to many of my pieces on the pages of this website and draw your own opinion.
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I'm convinced that there has never been a better time to be a composer.
There are no longer stylistic boundaries limiting our expression, and thanks to tools such as social media and websites like this, we can share our explorations with the world, regardless of where we choose to live.
I get a lot of joy from encouraging my peers to take full advantage of the freedom and power artists now possess. The internet is every bit as significant to human history as the invention of the printing press, as I've written about in essays like this one.
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Traditionally, a composer's catalog of pieces is viewed by instrumentation, and you'll find such a listing on the WORKS page of this site.
But I think that the music itself and the emotions it elicits are the best indicator of what a writer has to say, and so I put together the DIAL-A-MOOD page to offer a quick sampling of a variety of styles. It's almost as interactive as I am.
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So, there's a bit about me and what motivates my work as a composer. If you'd like to read a little more on my thoughts about composers, listeners and life in general, my musings continue HERE
Or, click around the other pages on this site to learn more about my background, read about my recent pieces and hear audio clips of my music. Drop me an email if you feel like it; I love hearing from people around the world. Enjoy!
Zip back up to the top of this looooong page! _____________________
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Contact and Press Kit
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Info and Press Kit |
You can even send a fax (what's THAT?) to: (270) 916-0093. |
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Alex is very fortunate to have a fantastic professional associate helping her each day with running her business: meet Laura Krider!
Need assistance with anything from Alex or Activist Music LLC? In addition to always being able to contact Alex, don't hestitate to email Laura.
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©
2000-2024 by
Alex Shapiro.
All nature photos by Alex Shapiro (like 'em?).
All rights reserved to design and content.