Alex will join composers Derek Bermel, Avner Dorman, Mateo Messina, and Kubilay Uner on an exciting panel exploring creative entrepreneurship and collaboration, at the 2010 ASCAP EXPO, April 22 through 24, at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, California. To register for this terrific conference, click here

Are you a musician who goes to conferences? Enjoy this little 1:32 clip!

CD Baby founder and all-around excellent musical citizen Derek Sivers publishes a blog that offers wise advice for professional music-makers. One of his posts, titled, Attending a music biz conference? Here's the REAL way to do it.... has terrific ideas about how to get the most out of these gatherings. Watch Alex in her natural habitat as she adds one more point to Derek's list:

Alex was the Composer-in-Residence for the NOW Music Festival hosted by Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, February 9-12, 2010.

Capital University faculty artists presented a concert of her chamber, electro-acoustic and jazz compositions on Thursday, February 11.

Featured performers included the Spectrum Faculty Jazz Ensemble, featuring Dr. Michael Cox, saxophone, Stan Smith, guitar, Roger Hines, bass and Bob Breithaupt, drums, plus Tony Zilincik, tuba, Dr. Lisa Jelle, flute, Cynthia Cioffari, bassoon and Dr. Gail Lehto Zugger, clarinet.

Throughout the week, Alex gave masterclasses, lectures and private lessons. In addition to talking to the music students about their art and their careers, she also gave two lectures to Capital University's business students about leadership and entrepreneurship in the digital age. It was an exciting week!

Click here for details

Now in its second pressing! Notes from the Kelp.
This Innova Recordings release is a collection
of eight of Alex's most representative chamber works.

To read about the music and hear excerpts, click here

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

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

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

Alex was the keynote speaker at the January 27th luncheon of Soroptimist International of Friday Harbor, at which she delivered a 45-minute motivational talk. For more info on Alex's presentations to audiences outside of the arts, click here

On January 13th in New York City, Alex joined Mariam Adam of Imani Winds, Le Poisson Rouge club co-founder Justin Kantor, and pianist and owner of MUSICJUSTMUSIC Cornelius Claudio Kreusch to speak on a panel at the NETMCDO conference (Network of Music Career Development Officers) titled, The Real Deal: Musician-Entrepreneurs Tell All.You can read more about the workshops here.

Alex was at Chamber Music America's national conference in New York City, January 14-17, at the Westin Times Square.

Alex was the sole artist testifying on an FCC panel hearing about broadband access on September 17, 2009.

Also on the panel were Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of Motion Picture Association of America; Frederick Huntsberry, COO of Paramount Pictures; Michael Bracy, policy director of Future of Music Coalition; Chuck Slocum, assistant executive director of the Writers Guild of America; Mike Carroll, Professor of Law, American University; Gigi Sohn, attorney and founder of Public Knowledge; Patrick Ross, executive director of Copyright Alliance; and Kathy Garmezy, assistant executive director of the Directors Guild of America. The proceedings can be viewed here

The following week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski quoted Alex's testimony in his keynote address at the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit in D.C. You can watch his speech and that of Minnesota Senator Al Franken here, via C-SPAN

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Fifth House Ensemble premiered Alex's newest acoustic chamber work, Archipelago, for string quartet, double bass and woodwind quintet, on November 15 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. The ensemble performed the work again on February 21st in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Read about it here.

Below, Alex's new work for contrabass flute and electronics commissioned by flutist Peter Sheridan, was released on Sheridan's 2009 CD on Australia's Move Records, titled Below: Music for Low Flutes. It was performed by Peter at the 2009 National Flute Association Convention at Times Square in New York City.

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Slowly, searching, a solo piano work commissioned by German pianist Susanne Kessel, appears on Kessel's January 2010 CD, An Robert Schumann, an homage to the composer, whose 200th birthday is in 2010. Eight composers were asked to create a piece in response to one of the eight fantasies of Schumann's Op. 16, Kreisleriana, creating a new suite titled Kreisleriana 2010. The CD was recorded at Germany's largest radio station, Deutschlandfunk, and has been released on Germany's Obst record label.

Water Crossing, Alex's widely performed work for clarinet and electronics commissioned by clarinetist F. Gerard Errante, has been released on Errante's 2010 CD for Aucourant Records, titled Delicate Balance.

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Alex's duo for violin and harpsichord, Slip, is a winner of the 2008 International Aliénor Harpsichord Composition Competition. The piece was performed at the annual concert sponsored by the Southeast Historical Keyboard Society. An even more raucous version that adds percussion from around the world, titled Slipping, is featured as the first track on Alex's 2007 CD, Notes from the Kelp.

The University of Minnesota is the lead organization in a newly formed consortium of U.S. schools that is commissioning Alex to compose a three-movement electroacoustic band work that will premiere in February 2011. Other participating institutions include Yale University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Puget Sound, Rosemount High School, Encore Wind Ensemble, and Eastern Illinois University.

Alex is also proud to be the 2010 commissioned composer for the longstanding American Composers Forum BandQuest series made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She will compose an electroacoustic work for middle school band that will have her interacting in a residency with the award-winning Friday Harbor High School Concert Band on San Juan Island, with Janet Olsen, director.

Alex addresses the audience at the premiere of Homecoming

Homecoming premiered March 30, 2008, in Newport News, Virginia, with a second performance at Fort Monroe on May 2. The work has since been performed by several universities and was most recently presented at Yale University on October 9, 2009.

The concert wind band piece was commissioned by the United States Army for its acclaimed TRADOC Band of Fort Monroe, VA., led by Commander and conductor, Major Tod A. Addison.

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Meet the Composer has given a 2009/2010 MetLife Creative Connections Award for Alex's continued appearances and performances in the virtual world, on Music Academy Online's OnLive series. You can watch one of Alex's recent shows here

The national music retailer J.W. Pepper and Son, Inc. is Activist Music's newest distributor, now carrying Alex's entire catalog of published scores.

Alex has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Music Center, a long-established national organization that provides advocacy and support for musicians and composers throughout the United States.

Alex is a new member of ASCAP's Symphony & Concert Committee, and along with fellow committee members Stephen Paulus, Jennifer Higdon, and James Kendrick, has started a U.S. touring series of music business seminars titled, The ASCAP Composer Career Workshop: Things They Don't Teach You in School. She has been nominated as the concert music composer representative for the ASCAP Board of Review slate for 2010.

Veteran music critic Alan Rich wrote in his Feb. 2005 L. A. Weekly column:

"[Alex Shapiro's string quintet, Current Events] deserves circulation... It's music exceptionally well made... I found it most attractive, especially in a long, beautifully unfolding slow movement." In Rich's July 2005 L. A. Weekly column he praises Alex's flute and oboe duet, Re:pair, as "perky and thoroughly delightful."

Off the cuff and typically direct, Alex challenges some assumptions on provocative issues like gender, race, the media and other timely topics. Oh, and the really pithy stuff, like stealing musical inspiration from your cat. Want to join in the discussions? Click on the icons at right

In April 2006 Alex was invited to contribute to a set of guest essays about bringing new listeners to the symphony, on Drew McManus' well-trodden orchestra management blog, Adaptistration. Her essay and many others appear in the book, Take a Friend to the Orchestra. Read Alex's forthright offering here

In January 2006, Alex began a blog titled Notes from the Kelp, her personal commentary from the beach. Years later she still posts new insights each week to a large international following of "Kelphistos." Pairing her photos and her music in what she calls a pixelsonic experience, Alex invites readers to share the beauty of the environment which inspires her. Visit and drop her a note!

notes from the kelp

Alex was Composer-in-Residence and Moderator of the New Music Festival at Santa Clara University with composers Chen Yi and Alvin Singleton, 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, March 2006, at which contrabassoonist Carolyn Beck performed Deep.