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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Its premiere reading with The Chappaqua Orchestra in the United States was immediately followed by this recording in July, 2015 with the miraculous City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at CBSO Centre in Birmingham, UK. ? The recording sessions with these great musicians confirmed the sounds, textures, timbres, rhythms, and, yes, emotions I intended to impart when I wrote the work.? It is preserved now for listeners to hear, and, I trust, be moved by ? a symphony in four movements for orchestra, plain and simple, colorful and complex, a work that is absolutely what it is.? The symphony is dedicated to Marjorie Perlin.
Duration of the Second Symphony: 36'

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.

‘Perlimplinito, Opera Sweet, A Lace Paper Valentine for Orchestra' contains the entr'acte music from Shapiro's first opera, based on the play by Federico Garcia Lorca. The fantastical story of an old man who falls tragically in love with a beautiful young woman who cuckolds him on their wedding night with the five races of the earth, the music of Perlimplinito is emotional, visceral, and beautifully lyrical. A perfect piece for Valentine's Day!

‘Roller Coaster for Orchestra,' is a five-minute wild ride. Premiered at the Cabrillo Festival in California by conductor Marin Alsop, the piece is a musical representation of the Coney Island (Brooklyn NY) Cyclone amusement park ride and a metaphor for life's ups and downs.