Symphonic & Concert music writer representative

Alex Shapiro aligns note after note with the hope that a few of them will actually sound good next to each other. Published by Activist Music, her works for acoustic and electroacoustic ensembles are performed and broadcast daily across the U.S. and internationally, and can be found on over thirty commercial releases from labels around the world.Born in New York City in 1962 and raised in Manhattan, Alex began composing as a much shorter person at age nine. She was educated at The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, where she was a composition student of Ursula Mamlok and John Corigliano. Earlier composition studies from age fifteen were with Leo Edwards at Mannes College of Music and with Michael Czajkowski and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music School.Shapiro is a pioneer in the uses of digital media for the promotion of artists' works. Through social networks and web sessions, Alex builds relationships with musicians and listeners, and creates an affinity for her work and its influences. The author of many articles on new media, in 2009 Shapiro testified in a Federal Communications Commission hearing on broadband access and digital rights. Alex is a co-founder of the ASCAP Composer Career Workshop series, advising fellow music artists on ways to benefit from their creative output, and she is a familiar guest lecturer at universities around the United States.A longtime resident of Malibu, California, in 2007 Alex traded the traffic and wildfires for a slightly less dangerous life on Washington State's remote San Juan Island. She procrastinates on her next piece by pointing her camera at the surrounding wildlife, resulting in sometimes-even-award-winning images including one that hangs at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. Shapiro’s audio and photos fill her blog, Notes from the Kelp, accompanied by her essays on animals, sea life, and human nature that connect not only Alex’s music, but her heart, to a wide sphere of colleagues and audiences.

Activist Music publishes Alex Shapiro's scores and is a direct retailer for her scores and CDs, via the website at http://www.activistmusic.com. Activist Music also enjoys many distribution deals with a diverse array of retailers across the United States and abroad.

Ms. Shapiro is a familiar face in the new music community, as a panelist, guest lecturer and moderator at many live events around the U.S. Appearances include those for six of the ASCAP "I Create Music" Expos in Hollywood, the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, the Chamber Music America Conference in New York City, The Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute in Minneapolis, The Society of Composers, Inc. National Convention in Arizona, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, the International Alliance of Women in Music in L.A., the National Recording Arts and Sciences "Grammy in the Schools" program in L.A., and many events for the Society of Composers & Lyricists and the American Composers Forum of L.A.. In her role as moderator of the Composers Salon series in Los Angeles, and of the "Composer to Composer" series at Walt Disney Concert Hall for ACF/LA, Alex has interviewed over 100 composers. Animated and entertaining, Alex has been a guest on many radio shows, found on her website at http://www.alexshapiro.org/ShapiroArticles.html .

Shapiro’s interviews and articles on composers and new technology have appeared in many print and online magazines, including NewMusicBox, ArtsJournal blogs including Sandow, Mind the Gap and Adaptistration, Tokafi, The Society of Composers & Lyricists’ The Score, The IAWM Journal and the American Composers Forum's Sounding Board, among others. Many of these can be read on her website at http://www.alexshapiro.org/ShapiroArticles.html .

Visit Shapiro's website to hear some of the notes in her head, and see what she's up to...