The Solo Piano Works of Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Adam Marks
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Sonata for Piano is loosely written in the structural tradition of many classical sonatas. The first movement, Moderato, explores two themes that are first developed independently and ultimately are interwoven as two parts of a whole. A set of jazz harmonies are implied against more angular melodic lines. The second movement, Lento; Andante, takes the listener on an emotional, dreamlike journey leading to a passionate outburst, and the final movement, Scherzo, is just that—an impish romp. 

With appreciation to Barbara Burgan for performing an earlier version of this piece when I shifted my composing career in the late ‘90s from commercial media to concert music, and with sincere thanks to Teresa McCollough, who included the final version on her debut album, New American Piano Music (Innova 630). 

innova Recordings
Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/ArcanaAlbum.html.

Arcana

Sonata for Piano: Movement 2: Lento Andante - Shapiro

Sonata for Piano: Movement 1: Moderato - Shapiro

The Solo Piano Works of Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Adam Marks
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Intermezzo was composed as a response to the waves of the ocean, and as a reflection on the flow of a more introspective, emotional sea. A long and lyrical theme floats above a steadily rolling line, perhaps as a lengthy branch of kelp might dance from the force of each coming tide.

innova Recordings
Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/ArcanaAlbum.html.

Intermezzo - Shapiro

The Solo Piano Works of Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Adam Marks
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Piano Suite No. 1: The Resonance of Childhood was composed as a set of personal reflections exploring early years, difficult parental relationships, and ultimately the acceptance of complex emo- tions. Intentionally simple, this piece is a personal reflection of a childhood that remains unsettling. The opening set of variations sets the tone for the entire Suite: searching and hope that are met with the uncomfortable combination of disappointment and acquiescence. Of the five short movements, perhaps the most intimate is the fourth, entitled For My Father, which was written in response to my beloved father Ivan’s descent into dementia.

With thanks to Zita Carno and Dorothy Spafard Hull for first bringing these notes to audiences.

innova Recordings
Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/ArcanaAlbum.html.

Piano Suite No 1: The Resonance of Childhood: 5- Older - Shapiro

Piano Suite No 1: The Resonance of Childhood: 4- For My Father - Shapiro

Piano Suite No 1: The Resonance of Childhood: 3- Quiet Child - Shapiro

Piano Suite No 1: The Resonance of Childhood: 2- On My Mother - Shapiro

Piano Suite No 1: The Resonance of Childhood: 1- Variations on a Memory - Shapiro

The Solo Piano Works of Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Adam Marks
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Arcana explores the painfully fragile and often perilous relationship between humans and the secrets of earth’s abundant plant life. The music often does so from the perspective of the plants themselves, with healing herbs as protagonists of a story that begins with a dire warning, and ends with the faith that wisdom and grace shall ultimately triumph.

In the pursuit of better health, a “healing crisis” can occur, during which someone may feel even worse after the start of a curative regime, before they feel better. Accordingly, the eight movements of this suite journey through some very dark and frightening places before arriving to the light. The toxins of conflict are a powerful subject, whether a struggle with one’s inner demons, or a battle against outer threats to the wellbeing of our planet.

An everlasting mystery in both examples is the poignant attempt to achieve balance. Renowned herbalists Michael Tierra and his wife Lesley are among those who succeed in this challenge beau- tifully, as they work to improve the bodies, minds and spirits of others while honoring the natural world, always respectful of its power to harm as well as to heal. Representing their shared passion through the sphere of music has been a passage of joy and discovery for which I’ll always be grateful.

As above, so below; as within, so without. Creation is a form of magic. The world of roots seeking good soil, and leaves turning upward to pure air, is one that we must protect, always.

With loving gratitude to Michael and Lesley Tierra.

innova Recordings
Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/ArcanaAlbum.html.

Arcana: 8- From Earth to Sky - Shapiro

Arcana: 7- Search - Shapiro

Arcana: 6- Touch It - Shapiro

Arcana: 5- Branches and Vines - Shapiro

Arcana: 4- Reach to Light - Shapiro

Arcana: 3- Heal from Within - Shapiro

Arcana: 2- Unfurl - Shapiro

Arcana: 1- Cradle These Roots - Shapiro

The Solo Piano Works of Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Adam Marks
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Slowly, searching is a modern-day homage to the lyricism, melancholy, and passion of Robert Schumann. German pianist Susanne Kessel created a project titled Kreisleriana 2010, asking eight composers to choose a movement of Schumann’s beloved suite as inspiration for their own voice. I was touched by the fourth, Sehr Langsam, and chose a few notes from it as my point of departure, and later, development. Two hundred years since this great composer’s birth, the themes of peace- fulness, joy, madness, and deep pain remain a human constant.

With warmest thanks to Susanne Kessel, who premiered and recorded this piece for her beautiful album on the Obst Music label, An Robert Schumann.

innova Recordings
Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/ArcanaAlbum.html.

Slowly, Searching - Shapiro

The Solo Piano Works of Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Adam Marks
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Spark was inspired by the life, love, energy, and heart of Dale Mara Bershad, a gifted musician who often used her talents to share the joy of expression and wonder with young children. As a mother, teacher, and performer, Mara’s remarkable inner light cast an indelible glow. Her essence remains radiant and present: a spark from a life filled with passion and delight, burning brightly, intensely, and without end.

With fond appreciation to Teresa McCollough, who first brought the spark of these notes to life in November 2011 in concerts in California and New York. A subsequent version of this piece for chamber sextet, using the identical piano part, was recorded by Fifth House Ensemble and appears on their 2014 album titled Excelsior, on Cedille Records.

innova Recordings
Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/ArcanaAlbum.html.

Spark - Shapiro

Below for Contrabass Flute and Electronic soundscape by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP).
Performed by Tessa Brinckman.
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

"Erupting beneath the surface is a stunning world of liquid beauty and grace. Hidden from our eyes and even our imagination, this private sanctuary envelopes life and hope. Follow your ears and your heart to the depths of a place we sometimes forget to look."

Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/Belowpg1.html.
https://tessabrinckman.bandcamp.com/album/below / www.tessabrinckman.com

Below

Below - Shapiro - Brinckman

Bioplasm for Flute Quartet by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP).
Performed by The Los Angeles Flute Quartet: Eileen Holt-Helwig, Colleen Carroll,
Lisa-Maree Amos and Peter Sheridan.
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

“I named this piece Bioplasm because "Oozing Up From the Primordial Sludge" seemed a bit long for a title. Bioplasm is the stuff of life, the germinal matter that's essential for living beings to generate. This is a squishy piece: rather than exploit the individual voice of each flute, I wanted to create an organism that oozes across the sonic floor as one tethered entity, sometimes slowly, sometimes at a quick pace, but always as one, like a Slinky toy. The blend of homogenous sound with four flutes is a throbbing pulse of life; add to this four human voices, and it's a choir of plasma, looking for life to begin.”

Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/Bioplasmpg1.html.

Above and Beyond

Bioplasm

Bioplasm - Shapiro - Los Angeles Flute Quartet

Chakra Suite by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Thakur Chakrapani Singh, veena; Mr. Jitendra, tablas; Alex Shapiro, guitar and electronics
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Chakra Suite for 32-string Veena, Tabla, 6-string Guitar and Electronic soundscape.

"In 2004 I received an email out of the blue from New Delhi, India, signed by Thakur Chakrapani Singh. In it he wrote me that having visited my website, he enjoyed my music and was very interested in a collaboration with me. “I want to do something new in music field, not like a fusion but some exemplary creative work.” My feelings, always. I immediately went to Chakrapani’s website and listened to the excerpts of his ragas, entranced. I had never collaborated with another composer before, but I sensed that a wonderful opportunity had presented itself to me, in the form of this brilliantly gifted veena maestro.

Indian music is centered around linear melody and rhythm. Western music is all about vertical harmony and counterpoint. Two very different approaches to creating music, but in this case, I saw it as two halves of what could be a lovely whole."

Ragas recorded in May 2005 by and electronics recorded in September, 2005 by Alex Shapiro.
 
Veena and tabla recorded at Amplyfi Audio Architect, Amritpuri,New Delhi-110065, India.

Veena and tabla track engineered and recorded by Sumit Kumar.

Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/ChakraSuitepg1.html.

Chakra Suite

Chakra Suite - Shapiro

Deep by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP). 
Performed by Cayla Bellamy, bassoon. 
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

“I want truth and nakedness in my music; I want honesty. I want the listener to feel my heart and have their own stirred by what I offer in sound.
 
Deep was commissioned by Carolyn Beck, who has been the inspiration for much of my bassoon music. I was touched by her excitement when a gorgeous new contrabassoon, affectionately named Moby, came into her life. Listening to the profound resonance of the tones the two made together returned me to the depths of the translucent sea that enveloped my body on a recent visit to Belize. The lower I sank, the more beauty greeted my eyes. The flat color of the surface had hidden the truth below.
 
Sometimes I make the mistake of believing that I’m not being unless I’m doing and moving. This piece was my challenge to myself to be still and present. And in doing so, I’ve never been as much before. Like the sea, my truth lies below, and I am happiest when I am immersed.
 
Inhale. Exhale.”


Learn more at https://www.alexshapiro.org/Deeppg1.html.

Double or Nothing

Deep

Deep - Shapiro - Bellamy

Evensong Suite by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Brice Martin, flute; Charles Boito, clarinet;
Carolyn Beck, bassoon and Frank Basile, piano 
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved

This six movement work: "Prelude," "Phos Hilaron,"
"Magnificat," "Nunc Dimittis," "Ascendit Deus,"
and "Postlude", was commissioned in 1999 by St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Mar Vista, California in the context of the Evensong evening prayer church service.

"The Prelude opens the Suite in a pastoral mood, with a rising motive to reflect the Ascensiontide occasion for the piece. The Phos Hilaron evokes a slow and quiet glow, mirroring the beauty of the last vesper light of a setting sun. The Magnificat, traditionally the dramatic center of the Evensong service, uses strong opposing motives which refer to the mighty being cast down from their thrones and the meek being lifted up. Nunc Dimittis is a pensive lullaby which blossoms into contentment and inner light.

The Ascendit Deus was written to encourage generous donations during the Offertory for the Sunday after the Ascension (!), and in celebration of the Savior rising up, so do the lines of the music! Finally, the Postlude begins with a contemplative and noble chorale and makes references to motives and moods from the earlier Prelude and Magnificat, bringing the Suite to an emotional conclusion."

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/EvensongSuitepg1s.html

Evensong Suite: PhosHilaron

Evensong Suite: Phos Hilaron - Shapiro

Evensong Suite: Prelude

Evensong Suite: Prelude - Shapiro

Intermezzo by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP). 
Performed by Jenni Olson, bass flute with Marcia Dickstein, harp. 
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Intermezzo was written as a response to the waves of the ocean, as well as a reflection of the waves of a more introspective, emotional sea. A long and lyrical theme floats above a steady ostinato, perhaps as a lengthy branch of kelp might dance from the force of each coming tide.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/IntermezzoforBassFl-Harppg1.html

The Dreams of Birds

Intermezzo

Intermezzo - Shapiro - Olson

Slowly, Searching by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Susanne Kessel, piano
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

"Slowly, searching is a modern day homage to the lyricism, melancholy and passion of Robert Schumann."

Composed for pianist Susanne Kessel, who created a project titled Kreisleriana 2010 in honor of composer Robert Schumann's 200th birthday. Ms. Kessel asked eight composers to choose a movement of Schumann's Kreisleriana suite as inspiration for their own voice.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/Slowlypg1.html

An Robert Schumann

Slowly, Searching

Slowly, Searching - Shapiro - Kessel

Sonata for Piano by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Teresa McCollough, piano
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP).

"The first movement, Moderato, explores two themes that are first developed independently and ultimately are interwoven as two parts of a whole. A set of jazz harmonies are implied against more angular melodic lines. The second movement, Lento; Andante, takes the listener on an emotional, dreamlike journey that leads to a passionate outburst, and the final movement, Scherzo, is just that— an impish romp through bitonality that ends with a laugh."

Three movement work: "Moderato," Lento; Andante,"
and "Scherzo." First version was premiered in May 1998
in Los Angeles, CA. by Barbara Burgan. The revised version with new first movement premiered in April 1999 in Santa Clara, CA. by Teresa McCollough.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/Sonatapg1s.html

New American Piano Music

Sonata For Piano: Lento

Sonata For Piano: Lento - Shapiro - McCollough

Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Deon Nielsen Price, piano, Berkeley Price, clarinet and Nancy Roth, violin
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP). All right reserved.

"This piece was composed using classical sonata form as a point of departure for a modern tonal and rhythmic palette, and each of the three movements evokes a distinctive mood. 

The Allegro introduces a strong theme, first heard in the clarinet and then developed for all three instruments throughout the movement. A quiet piano entrance begins the Adagio, an unabashedly romantic gesture that gradually builds with a lyrical, ascending line. The third movement, Vivace, is a fun, raucous sort of gypsy dance that cavorts through bitonality and shifting meters and ends the entire Trio with a big grin."

This award-winning piece has been heard in concerts across the U.S. and in Europe. The Price Trio gave the piece its British premiere in July 1999 at St. Mark's Hall in London, as a featured American work at the International Congress of Women in Music, and was also the ensemble which performed it at a 2002 concert held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/TrioforClpg1s.html

Trio For Clarinet Violin And Piano: Adagio

Trio For Clarinet Violin And Piano: Adagio - Shapiro - Price Duo and Nancy Roth

Notes from the Kelp by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All right reserved.
Performed by Miwako Watanabe and Connie Kupka, violins; Victoria Miskolczy and David Walther, violas and David Speltz, cello.


"Current Events ponders the ocean's tides as well as waves of a more internal, emotional nature. Living very near the water, communing with tide pools has been a constant in my life: if I weren't a musician I might well have become a marine biologist. As our above-sea level world continues on its restless and sometimes frightening path, I walk to the ocean for truth and a mirror. Staring into the water I seek out life forms that encounter their own dramas, good and bad, with each wave.

Like the ocean's currents, change in life is constant. It's how we adapt to the flow that makes all the difference."

Alex Shapiro has become one of the Pacific coast's most familiar composers of chamber music. Her name is synonymous with passionate music and a deep connection to the sea which surrounds her. Notes From the Kelp is a collection of eight of Alex's representative works.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/ASNotesfromtheKelpCD.html

Notes from the Kelp

Current Events: Rip - Shapiro

Current Events: Ebb - Shapiro

Notes from the Kelp by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All right reserved.
Performed by Miwako Watanabe and Connie Kupka, violins; Victoria Miskolczy and David Walther, violas and David Speltz, cello.

"Current Events ponders the ocean's tides as well as waves of a more internal, emotional nature. Living very near the water, communing with tide pools has been a constant in my life: if I weren't a musician I might well have become a marine biologist. As our above-sea level world continues on its restless and sometimes frightening path, I walk to the ocean for truth and a mirror. Staring into the water I seek out life forms that encounter their own dramas, good and bad, with each wave.

Like the ocean's currents, change in life is constant. It's how we adapt to the flow that makes all the difference."

Alex Shapiro has become one of the Pacific coast's most familiar composers of chamber music. Her name is synonymous with passionate music and a deep connection to the sea which surrounds her. Notes From the Kelp is a collection of eight of Alex's representative works.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/ASNotesfromtheKelpCD.html

Surge

Current Events: Surge - Shapiro

Notes from the Kelp by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All right reserved.
Performed by Los Angeles Flute Quartet

"Bioplasm is the stuff of life, the germinal matter that's essential for living beings to generate. This is a squishy piece: rather than exploit the individual voice of each flute, I wanted to create an organism that oozes across the sonic floor as one tethered entity, sometimes slowly, sometimes at a quick pace, but always as one, like a Slinky toy. The blend of homogenous sound with four flutes is a throbbing pulse of life; add to this four human voices, and it's a choir of plasma, looking for life to begin."

Alex Shapiro has become one of the Pacific coast's most familiar composers of chamber music. Her name is synonymous with passionate music and a deep connection to the sea which surrounds her. Notes From the Kelp is a collection of eight of Alex's representative works.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/ASNotesfromtheKelpCD.html

Bioplasm - Shapiro

Notes from the Kelp by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All right reserved.
Performed by Teresa McCollough, piano; Thomas Burritt, marimba, vibraphone; Peggy Benkeser, percussion

"During the time I composed this piece, October 2002, too many sad, threatening and violent events throughout the world offered proof of the terminal fragility of humans and of our planet. Politically. Ecologically. Ethically. I titled this piece At the Abyss because as members of a species which remains too savage for its ultimate group survival, we're staring directly into a huge crevasse that is our future. We are poised to plummet to its depths if we do not act accordingly.

The three movements are "Observe," "Reflect," and "Act".... akin to my three-step approach to life in general. In this instance, I'm observing the world, and stepping back to reflect on it in grief while accepting that there's only so much that will change. Finally, I realize that the least one can do is... act. In one way or another."

Alex Shapiro has become one of the Pacific coast's most familiar composers of chamber music. Her name is synonymous with passionate music and a deep connection to the sea which surrounds her. Notes From the Kelp is a collection of eight of Alex's representative works.

Learn more at: https://www.alexshapiro.org/ASNotesfromtheKelpCD.html

At The Abyss: Act - Shapiro

Reflect

At The Abyss: Reflect - Shapiro

Observe

At The Abyss: Observe - Shapiro

Desert Thoughts by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP). 
Performed by Telos Trio.
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved

"Desert Thoughts is some of the most programmatic music I've composed, to the point where even the score itself contains maniacal little outbursts describing the visions that swept through my mind as the music wrote itself. The scene: the desert's arid stillness and the weight of the morning's expanding heat. A sudden rainstorm overtakes the landscape, forming instant pools of water over the cracked earth. The storm passes as quickly as it arrived, and as the birds and reptiles emerge to greet the fleeting moisture, the music ends as flowers strain upward against the bluest sky for those few passionate moments of their fullest bloom. Ahhh."

For more information, visit https://www.alexshapiro.org/DesertThoughtspg1.html.

Fresh Wind

Desert Thoughts

Desert Thoughts - Shapiro - Telos Trio

Desert Tide by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Douglas Masek, saxophone.
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

"Desert Tide is some of the most programmatic music I've composed, to the point where even the score itself contains maniacal little outbursts describing the visions that swept through my mind as the music wrote itself. The scene: the desert's arid stillness and the weight of the morning's expanding heat. A sudden rainstorm overtakes the landscape, forming instant pools of water over the cracked earth. The storm passes as quickly as it arrived, and as the birds and reptiles emerge to greet the fleeting moisture, the music ends as flowers strain upward against the bluest sky for those few passionate moments of their fullest bloom. Ahhh."

For more information, visit https://www.alexshapiro.org/DesertTidepg1.html.

Saxtronic Soundscape

Desert Tide

Desert Tide - Shapiro - Masek

Tight Squeeze by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Pacific Wind Band, Vu Nguyen, conductor.
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

"It has everything to do with a young gull who landed on a rock in front of my desk window as I was finishing this music, with a sizable flounder uh, floundering in his clamped beak. The rather goofy-looking bird was having a challenging time figuring out how to swallow his windfall. I said to the bird, "Wow, tight squeeze, eh?!", and immediately realized that all these notes that were cramming the score page would soon be squeezing through the musicians’ instruments, as snugly as a fat flounder in a gull's mouth. I also realized that talking to birds is pointless; they make lousy conversationalists."

Tight Squeeze is written for concert wind band and prerecorded track. It can be adapted for any size ensemble and instrument combination.

Learn more at: www.alexshapiro.org/Tight_Squeezepg1.html

Best of Pacific 2020

Tight Squeeze

Tight Squeeze - Shapiro - Pacific Wind Band

Of the many, many people named Alex Shapiro out there, I am most likely the only one who composes chamber and electroacoustic wind band music AND who used to breed pythons. Others may claim to have done one, but not both.

Music. Nature. Laughing. Eating well. Friendships. And lots of other fun stuff, too. In no particular order. Unlike the music I compose, the notes of which are definitely in a particular order. If you want to know more about my life as a composer, please visit http://www.alexshapiro.org . And if you want to know where all these notes really come from, please click: http://www.notesfromthekelp.com . Thanks!


Alex Shapiro composer

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