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Artist: Michael Shapiro
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Michael Shapiro:

In The Light Of The Sun

Michael Shapiro has written over 100 works for orchestral, theatrical, film, chamber, choral, and vocal forces and conducts internationally. His music has been performed by many of the world’s great orchestras (including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the UK) and performers in North America and Europe. Much of his music is recorded and available on major platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music and is regularly broadcast throughout the world, including SiriusXM, National Public Radio, BBC, CBC, ABC-Australia, Polskie Radio, and over 50 commercial radio stations in North America. His score for the classic film Frankenstein is his most popular work and has been performed over 60 times internationally including the premieres recently of the new operatic version at the LA Opera and Atlanta Opera. His music is exclusively published by Universal Edition/Wien.

The search for inspiration is a never-ending and vital journey in a person's life. In the case of Stathis Karapanos, he was able to find this inspiration by playing the flute. He studied at the National Conservatory in Athens, the University of Music in Karlsruhe, and the Conservatoire National Supérieurde Musique et de Danse de Paris and has had teachers and mentors such as Pirmin Grehl, Mathieu Dufour, Vangelis Papathanassiou, Petra Müllejans, Henrick Wiese, Peter Lukas Graf, as well as Philippe Bernold. After his graduation, he was appointed principal flute of the Athens State Orchestra. Since 2018, Stathis Karapanos has been invited to perform with renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Shapiro, Valery Gergiev, Yutaka Sado and orchestras like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica between others. As a chamber musician, he has been invited to perform with artists such as Gidon Kremer, Vilde Frang, Matthias Goerne, Nicolas Altstaedt, Daniel Hope, Chen Reiss and Marisol Montalvo.  

Michael Shapiro:

Voices

VOICES - FOR SOPRANO SOLOIST, SATB CHORUS, AND CHAMBER ENSEMBLE. Based on Sephardic Poetry of the Holocaust, By Michael Shapiro

Movements in different languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Ladino, and Hebrew. Full concert-length work. Lyric soprano soloist. SATB chorus (appropriate for chamber or concert choir). Chamber ensemble of seven (7) players reminiscent of the instrumentation available in the so-called Model Ghetto of Terezin.

VOICES is not meant to be a requiem or Kaddish.  Although it contains Sephardic texts created in the face of unimaginable cruelty, they vary in intent and feeling.  Themes of rebellion, hatred, hope, and beauty spring up.  Having each movement in a different language makes clear the universality of the emotions expressed. The work presents no answers but ponders questions to the most important issues facing humanity.

What would we feel if we were they?  Can we walk with them and know what they knew?  Do we view the earth and sky with their eyes and hear their sighs and shudder at their screams?  Is the frigid wind on their faces under our skin, and do we wipe their tears from our cheeks?  And are we burnt from the fire that turned them into ash?

Michael Shapiro:

Frankenstein - The Movie Score

James Whale's film classic Frankenstein (1931), starring Boris Karloff, was released without a musical score, as were many films in those early days of the talkie.  A number of critics, including Leonard Maltin, have remarked that Frankenstein is badly in need of music.  Michael Shapiro's 70-minute score is written to be played simultaneously with the screening of the film.  For modern-day concert- and moviegoers, his haunting music adds significantly to the emotional impact of the film.

Michael Shapiro was commissioned in 2002 by the Boris Koutzen Foundation to write this film score. The world premiere of this work, with live chamber orchestra and film, occurred in October 2002 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Jacob Burns Film Center in New York. Since its premiere, it has received over 50 performances worldwide, including its European premiere at the Bergen International Festival in Norway, and at the Mariinsky Theater Film Annex in St. Petersburg, with major symphony orchestras in the United States, Canada, and the U.K., by Federal service bands such as the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C., and the Royal Canadian Air Force Band (La Musique de Aviation royale canadienne) in Winnepeg, and university ensembles throughout the Americas.

The overture of the full orchestral version was recorded by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the U.K. Due to its worldwide popularity, Michael Shapiro's Frankenstein is available in four (4) versions:

Chamber orchestra (15 players)(adaptable for strings into a theater orchestra version (25-35 players)
Full symphony orchestra (70+ players with double winds and added percussion) (premiered by the Virginia Symphony)
Wind ensemble (premiered by the Dallas Winds at Meyerson Symphony Center)
New operatic version for five singers and chamber orchestra (libretto is the Latin Requiem Mass)
Duration: 70 minutes

Michael Shapiro has written in virtually all genres, including opera, symphony, concerto, choral and chamber works, and over 100 songs.

Michael Shapiro's works have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe-with broadcasts of premieres on National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Sender Freies Berlin, WQXR, and WCBS-TV. His music, which spans across all media, has been characterized in a New York Times review as "possessing a rare melodic gift." His oeuvre includes more than 100 works for solo voice, piano, chamber ensembles, chorus, orchestra, as well as for opera, film, and television, with recordings on Naxos and Paumanok Records.

Michael Shapiro:

Michael's Songbook with Ariadne Greif

My song cycles Dublin Songs and Canciones,were written during my twenties and reflect my fascination with the poetry of James Joyce and Federico Garcia Lorca. In particular, I love the freedom of Joyce's lyricism and the visionary color and rhythm of Lorca. They are very much my heroes in their choice of words and subject matter. It is a long way from Dublin to Barcelona, but perhaps closer than one might imagine.??My way is to follow where the poems go and fill in with musical sounds the imagery and imagining of the poesy, remembering at all times the careful and caring depiction of humanity by these two great souls.

Michael Shapiro:

Second Sonata For Violin And Piano

The extraordinary violin virtuoso, Tim Fain, and New York Philharmonic and Brooklyn Knights pianist, Steven Beck, play Michael Shapiro's four movement Second Violin and Piano Sonata.  Each movement features their unique artistry portraying the exciting and sometimes bittersweet lyrical melodies of Michael Shapiro.  A special and meaningful presentation of unforgettable music. With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, violinist Tim Fain has emerged as a mesmerizing presence on the music scene. The "charismatic violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops" (Boston Globe), was seen on screen and heard on the Grammy nominated soundtrack to the film Black Swan, can be heard on the soundtrack to Moonlight and gave "voice" to the violin of the lead actor in the hit film 12 Years a Slave, as he did with Richard Gere's violin in the film Bee Season. Fain captured the Avery Fisher Career Grant and launched his career with Young Concert Artists.

Michael Shapiro:

Peace Variations For Solo Violin

Peace Variations were written for the great virtuoso violinist Tim Fain and premiered in 2010 at the Meisel Loft in Soho, New York, City.  The customary Jewish greeting of Shalom Aleichem – Peace Be Unto You – is also memorialized in a traditional theme often used to greet the beginning of the Sabbath.  The music expresses a hope for universal peace that is the ultimate goal of Judaism and civilized living.  The Hebrew symbol of "Chai" or life or the number 18 are represented in an equivalent eighteen variations.  Yes, cherishing life is more important than anything else.  Those desires outlined in contrasting variations are abundantly nurtured by the expressivity of Tim's miraculous playing.

Michael Shapiro:

Second Symphony for Orchestra, CBSO

Notes by the composer..........My Second Symphony is a work of absolute music.? It has no subtext; it tells no "story"; it just is.? I had always wished to write a four-movement symphony, containing a serious first movement, a scherzo, a lyrical slow movement, and a set of variations concluding in transcendence.? Working in 2010 with Maestra Marin Alsop and the virtuosic Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (for the California premiere of my Roller Coaster) provided inspiration to open my symphonic veins further, write a large work for large orchestra, and out came this purely instrumental symphony (my first, Symphony Pomes Penyeach, is a song cycle).? The Second Symphony is scored for full orchestra including the usual complement of winds, brass, percussion, and strings, but adding alto flute and English horn for their special pungency. 

Michael Shapiro:

ARCHANGEL

Michael Shapiro breathes new life into the famous Toccata from the Fifth Organ Symphony by Victorian French composer Charles-Marie Widor with this arrangement for full orchestra named Widorama! played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by the composer. Shapiro's arrangement of the famous Toccata, frequently used by organists for weddings and church services, brings the work into the concert hall in highly dramatic fashion.

‘Archangel Concerto for Piano and Orchestra' features pianist Steven Beck (New York Philharmonic, Brooklyn Knights). The Concerto is probably the most programmatic piece of music Michael Shapiro has ever written.  Archangel is in two books or movements. Book One depicts the war between the forces of good and evil set forth in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Book Two portrays Adam and Eve (and the Serpent) in Eden and their being cast out into the world we all live.  Archangel is therefore about the most basic and terrifying truth, the fight between good and evil raging to this day.