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Commercial Scoring
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Prior to shifting the focus of her career in 1998 to concert music, Alex Shapiro worked for many years in the commercial music world. Below are examples from a variety of past projects-- and she's always available for new ones.
Information about Alex's concert music can be found throughout other pages on this site. Have a look! |
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Licensing
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ALL licensing inquiries, including recording, broadcast, synchronization to video or dance, marching band or other arrangements, etc., are handled directly by Ms. Shapiro and Activist Music LLC.
Need custom music for your project? Please send an email with the details of your request by clicking here.
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As
featured in  |
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Film
and TV Music Special Issue of |
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Among Alex's scores from the 1990s are the feature film Horses and Champions, starring Timothy Bottoms (The Last Picture Show); the film The Last Job, for Force Majeure Productions and The Medicine Show, a one-hour dramatic pilot for Columbia Pictures Television and NBC starring Jon Cryer (Pretty in Pink).
She has scored projects for Emmy Award winning producer Arnold Shapiro (Rescue 911; Scared Straight; no relation), Sony Television, Turner Broadcasting Network, Churchill Films, the American Film Institute, and many other clients.
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In addition to her work for broadcast media, Shapiro also scored several Telly award-winning films for the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse, and composed music for interactive CD-ROM projects for companies including Warner New Media and Philips Interactive Media.
Alex has written and produced many jazz tunes, pop songs and commercials, and has worked extensively as both a producer and a recording studio engineer.
Between 1996 and 1998 she was a booth recording supervisor for Paramount Pictures' Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television series, and assisted in the music production of the Las Vegas Hilton's interactive ride, Star Trek: The Experience.
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Film
and TV Music Special Issue of |
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Odds and Ends...
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Along with her film and TV scoring, Ms. Shapiro worked as a recording engineer at Prime Track Studios in North Hollywood, CA., a studio known for hosting everyone from unknown local metal rock bands to Van Halen, and she later partnered with L.A. lyricist Melanie Kanon Frey in several songwriting ventures, including writing and producing a rap tune, In the Marathon, performed live on site for the 1993 Los Angeles Marathon.
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Shapiro chaired the Public Relations committee for Women In Film's 1993 Crystal Awards, among whose honorees were Julie Andrews, Jack Lemmon, Mike Farrell and then Paramount Pictures President Sherry Lansing. Alex produced music for the annual Razzie™ Awards in Hollywood and served as a Finalist Judge for the music award categories in the 15th Anniversary CableACE® Awards. In both 1993 and 1994 Ms. Shapiro was profiled in articles in The Hollywood Reporter that featured women composers and new technology.
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Ms. Shapiro served three terms as a member of the Board of Directors of The Society of Composers & Lyricists, including two years as Vice President. As Chairperson of the 1996, 1997, and 1999 Film & TV Music Conferences, co-presented in Los Angeles at The Directors Guild of America by the SCL and The Hollywood Reporter, she brought artists and industry professionals together to explore creative and business issues in seminars which featured composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Randy Newman, Bruce Broughton, Alf Clausen and Marc Shaiman, filmmakers including James Cameron, Roland Joffe, Michael Bay, Mark Rydell, and Daniel Melnick, and songwriters such as David Foster, Diane Warren and Alan and Marilyn Bergman, along with over seventy other distinguished participants.
Alex moderated the 2004 seminar, Launching Your Film Scoring Career, co-presented by The American Composers Forum of Los Angeles and The Society of Composers & Lyricists. Held at the Musicians Union Local 47 (Los Angeles), over 200 attendees gained insight from industry pros on the latest developments in the film and TV scoring business.
To listen to the panel discussion, click here:
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Jazz tunes...
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Title
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Listen
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Music
is available
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Here are some short demo versions of a few of Alex's full length tunes:
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Dorian
Mood
(excerpt; 2:23)
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Longing
for You
(2:00)
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Hot
Mud
(1:51)
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Point
Lobos
(excerpt; 1:21)
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Rain
Walk
(2:21)
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Waltz
for Parker Wilson
(1:37)
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Without You (1:42) |
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Film scores...
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The Last Job (1994; Force Majeure Productions) Piano,
electric guitar, A
dark film about a handful of Guitarist
Ira Ingber is featured
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Selected cues |
Listen |
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"The
Last Job" |
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"The
Last Job" |
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"The
Last Job" |
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Horses and Champions (1995; Augusta Grace Productions) Nine piece chamber ensemble. A
touching story
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Selected cues |
Listen |
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"Horses
and Champions" |
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"Horses
and Champions" |
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"Horses
and Champions" |
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Other Film, TV and documentary scores...
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Selected
cues
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Listen
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Main
Title from "Most
Wanted"
(TV; action; :56) |
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Main
Title from "The
Medicine Show"
(TV; comedy; :26) |
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Main
Title from "A
Delicate Balance"
(Film; film noir; 2:59) |
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Main
Title from "Courthouse"
(TV; drama; :50) |
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Main
Title from "Behind
the Scene at People Magazine"
(TV Documentary; :23) |
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Main
Title from "Dream
Vista"
(TV; drama; 1:37) |
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Main
Title from "Asylum"
(Film; suspense; 1:24) |
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Some Pop tracks...
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Selected demo clips |
Listen |
Alex Shapiro: vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, music, lyrics, everything. Sorry! But hey, these are just rough DEMOS, and maybe someday they'll find a home with some wonderful recording artists and producers. |
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"Falling in You" (indie pop ballad; excerpt; 1:15) |
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"Your Wildest Dream" (uptempo blues rock; excerpt; 1:38) |
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"On Thanksgiving" (country power ballad; excerpt; 2:12) |
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"Addiction" (uptempo blues funk; excerpt; 1:27) |
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"Found Out Hard" (indie country rock; excerpt; 1:30) |
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"Time" (indie pop ballad; excerpt; 1:50) |
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"Just Call" (rap/hip hop track; track only; excerpt; 2:15) |
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"Tell Myself the Truth" (pop mid tempo ballad; excerpt; 2:12) |
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"Each Star" (pop mid tempo ballad; excerpt; 2:15) |
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If you'd like to hear the full versions of these demos, visit THIS PAGE and drop an email to Alex for the download code! |
and a Sports theme...
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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-- plays during every football game starting September 2015, as the 290 musicians of the Tiger Marching Band pour out on to the field to perform. Go Tigers-- the 2016 and 2019 National Champions!
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Here's the version used for the 2019 National Championship: |
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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Musings from Alex...
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There are many composers who work fluently— and, most happily— with a wide variety of musical styles, and I'm definitely one of them. Just as we don't necessarily eat the same type of food each evening, there are some days in which we're driven to complete our five movement "Concerto Suite for Violin, De-Tuned Ocarina and Three Euphoniums," and then there are days when we're compelled to write a rock ballad or a screaming blues tune, followed by a little musical theater number that just came to mind after we finished up a jazz chart that had been rattling around in our head.
Or something like that. |
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We're the same person each time we sit down to compose, but from time to time we hear and create in different idioms. Stylistic diversity shouldn't cause a composer to be taken less seriously in his or her primary field of pursuit. Rather, it points to broad interests that are positive creative influences on a musician's sensibilities.
Even within individual pieces of music, as the distance between countries— and fan bases— appears to shrink with new technology, voices and inspirations from other nations filter seamlessly into one's own work. The 21st century has brought with it a global melting pot of sound, with endless choices for composers and players. It's about time! |
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There's a tendency to pigeonhole composers into easy-to-digest categories: "film composer" or "concert composer" or "world music," etc. Sometimes there's not much overlap between the different musical worlds; the people pursuing pop songwriting or jazz don't usually attend the same events as the folks in what some people call "serious" or "legit" music (a term that's an unintentional insult to those who write "popular" music, and a hilarious misnomer of a lot of the concert music I know, much of which is anything but serious).
But all music shares a common history and language, regardless of genre. In fact, when asked about the nature of my concert music, I refer to myself as a "pan-genre composer." |
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I love seeing more connection between some of the musical worlds that often appear sonically segregated. There's a wealth of great material out there, coming from all sorts of writers.
A lot of audiences would appreciate concerts that offer a mixed bag of music within a single evening's program: a couple of concert chamber music quartets, a couple of jazz quartets, perhaps a song from a new musical. And wouldn't it be interesting if some of these diverse pieces were composed by the same person.
I was treated to such concert of my music during a 2010 residency at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, and a 2022 concert of my works at University of Wisconsin-River Falls. The evenings began and ended with a variety of my acoustic and electroacoustic chamber works, and in the middle, the resident jazz combos performed a fabulous set of my tunes. At Capital, as the audience entered and later departed, my pop songs were piped in over the P/A as background music. Not only was I thrilled, but the audience loved the events. They were solid object lessons in artistic diversity for the students, and proof that music is music, is music. |
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Offering an integrated array of music within a concert, composers might reach a broader base of potential fans— listeners exposed to music that moves them, which they otherwise might not have ventured out to hear. I think it would be terrific to celebrate everyone's musical diversity— that of the composers', and that of our audience. Here's to a little musical schizophrenia!
So, if you've read this far, I invite you to click on any of the buttons below and see what work I've been doing the past few years. You're also invited to read a few more of my essays about music, nature and life in general by clicking HERE. Enjoy!
—A.S |
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Interact with the composer! |
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The
VERY best way to reach Alex is
through email, |
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You
can even send a fax (what's THAT?) to:
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©
2000-2024 by
Alex Shapiro.
All rights reserved to design and content.