
Works by Michael Shapiro
Biography
Michael Shapiro’s works have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe—with broadcasts of premieres on National Public Radio (NPR), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), Polskie Radio (Poland), Australian and South African stations, Sender Freies Berlin, WQXR, WCBS-TV, SiriusXM Symphony Hall Living American and Vincent Caruso’s Classics on Film, and over 50 United States, Canadian, and British public and commercial radio stations. 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 has collaborated with such artists as Teresa Stratas, José Ferrer, Janos Starker, Sir Malcolm Arnold, Marin Alsop, Sergiu Comissiona, Grant Gershon, Deborah Simpkin King, Jerry Junkin, Paul Shaffer, Eugene Drucker, Kim Cattrall, Tim Fain, Lara Downes, Gottfried Wagner, Alexis Cole, Edward Arron, Jerome Rose, Mariko Anraku, Elliott Forrest, Steven Beck, Ariadne Greif, Daniel Mutlu, John Fullam, Captain Kenneth Collins, Jose Ramos Santana, Clamma Dale, Anita Darian, Florence Levitt, Kikuei Ikeda, Ayako Yoshida, Harris Poor, John Edward Niles, David Leibowitz, Robert Tomaro, Anthony LaGruth, Kathryn Amyotte, James Allen Anderson, Matthew Thomas Troy, Sarah McKoin, Albert Nguyen, Kevin Suetterlin, David Kehler, Jeffery Meyer, Glen Hemberger, Diva Goodfriend-Koven, Andrey Litvinenko, and Emily Wong, and organizations such as the LA Opera, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Atlanta Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (LaVerdi), Philharmonisches Orchester der Stadt Trier (Theater Trier), Houston Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico, United States Navy Band, West Point Band, Royal Canadian Air Force Band, Dallas Winds, Dragefjetts Musikkorps, St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Traverse Symphony Orchestra, New York Repertory Orchestra, Beloit Janesville Symphony, Garden State Philharmonic, Piedmont Wind Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, Steamboat Springs Strings Music Festival, Westchester Concert Singers, International Opera Center at the Zürich Opera, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Israel Broadcasting Authority, Sender Freies Berlin, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio (NPR), WCBS-TV, WQXR Radio, Milken Archive of Jewish Music, American Jewish Committee, Argus Quartet, Hawthorne String Quartet, Locrian Chamber Ensemble, Amernet String Quartet, Artemis, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Festspillene i Bergen (Bergen International Festival), and Dateline NBC, and universities in New York, California, Texas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Ohio, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
Michael Shapiro guest conducts internationally and is Laureate Conductor of The Chappaqua Orchestra in New York’s Westchester County, which he conducted for the world premiere of his score for the classic 1931 film Frankenstein (directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff and Colin Clive) (since its premiere the work has received over 50 productions internationally), as well as for the world premiere of his own orchestral work, Roller Coaster, which received its West Coast premiere under the baton of Marin Alsop at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music while Shapiro was a composer in residence. He served for two years as the music consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where he produced and performed music by a number of composers who were either murdered by the Germans and their collaborators or had survived as refugees from the Third Reich. He has also been the assistant conductor at the Zurich Opera Studio.
The son of a Klezmer band clarinetist, Michael Shapiro was born in Brooklyn, New York, and spent most of his high school years in Baldwin, a Long Island suburb, where he was a music student of Consuelo Elsa Clark, William Zurcher, and Rudolf Bosakowski. The winner of several piano competitions during his youth, he earned his B.A. at Columbia College, Columbia University, where he majored in English literature and concentrated in music, benefiting most—according to his own assessment—from some of the department’s stellar musicology faculty, which, at that time, included such international luminaries as Paul Henry Lang, Denis Stevens, Joel Newman, and others. He studied conducting independently with Carl Bamberger at the Mannes College of Music in New York and later with Harold Farberman at Bard College. At The Juilliard School, where he earned his master’s degree, he studied solfège and score reading with the renowned Mme. Renée Longy—known to generations of Juilliard students as “the infamous madame of dictation” for her rigorous demands and classic pedagogic methods—and composition with Vincent Persichetti. His most influential composition teacher, however, was Elie Siegmeister, with whom Shapiro studied privately.
About the music
Michael Shapiro is a direct descendent of his American mentors Aaron Copland, Elie Siegmeister, and Leonard Bernstein and deeply shaped by Charles Ives, George Gershwin, and the great Broadway composers. His compositional style incorporates folk song, contrapuntal writing influenced by his French training, and rich orchestration in a fluid and emotional presentation. His Second Symphony received its premiere performance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, as well as his Overture to Frankenstein - The Movie Score (his most performed work with over 60 performances worldwide including upcoming concerts of one of the versions of the work at The Atlanta Opera (using the LA Opera edition), Winnipeg Symphony, and ensembles in Europe), Voices for soloist, chorus, and chamber ensemble recently premiered and was recorded in New York City's grand Central Synagogue by Daniel Mutlu, tenor, Ember Choral Arts, and American Modern Ensemble conducted by Deborah Simpkin King and in Los Angeles, California by the LA Master Chorale at the Reagan Library conducted by Grant Gershon.
One of Michael Shapiro's principal mentors was the conductor Carl Bamberger who was born and raised in Vienna and carried his Austrian roots with him throughout his life. Maestro Bamberger was a student of Heinrich Schenker, a colleague of Klemperer, Walter, Böhm, and Furtwängler, and husband of Lotte Hammerschlag (the daughter of Alma Mahler's physician, member of the Busch Quartet, and founding violist of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, brought to Israel by Huberman). It was under Bamberger's aegis that Michael Shapiro became deeply acquainted with not only the Austrian masters Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, but in particular the works of Gustav Mahler as published by Universal Edition. These early influences have directly marked Michael Shapiro's compositional outlook and style.
The Slave, Opera in Two Acts, libretto by Hannah McDermott, based on the novel by Nobel Prize Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer
THE SLAVE SYNOPSIS
PROLOGUE
In 1648, during a time of plague, pestilence, and the denial of human rights, the citizens of the Jewish village of Josefov are massacred by Cossacks. During the chaos, Jacob, a young scholar, is manacled and led away.
ACT ONE – WANDA
Four years have passed. Jacob is now the slave of Jan Bzik, a tavern owner in the Polish village of Zagayek. Jacob, waking up in the mountainside barn where he resides, meditates on the loss of his old life. Wanda, Jan Bzik’s daughter, enters. The affection between Wanda and Jacob is palpable. After she leaves, Jacob agonizes over his attraction to Wanda, a gentile.
In Jan Bzik’s tavern, the villagers gossip. Stefan, the bailiff, tells Jan Bzik that Jacob has brought bad luck to the community. Bzik dismisses Stefan’s concerns. When Wanda arrives, Stefan attempts to flirt with her but Wanda rejects him. Wanda’s mother, Anieszka, scolds her for preferring their Jewish slave Jacob to Stefan.
Jacob is startled by Wanda entering the barn. When a storm begins, Wanda tells Jacob that the weather is too bad for her to return home. They prepare to sleep. While lying next to each other, they kiss. Jacob tells Wanda that she must bathe in the stream before they go any further. She does so, then reenters the barn. The two embrace.
As Zagayek celebrates the harvest, Wanda and Jacob help harvest the grain. The peasants make fun of Jacob for being a Jew. When Stefan arrives, he notices Wanda’s attention to
Jacob. He jealously taunts Jacob and encourages the rest of the men to do the same. Anieszka enters and tells Wanda that her father has died and that she is needed immediately, ordering Jacob to stay. With Wanda gone, Stefan’s comments grow increasingly vicious. Suddenly, Jewish men enter with the local priest. They explain that they have come from Josefov to ransom Jacob and take him home.
After a month of travel, Jacob and the men from Josefov are finally approaching home. They tell Jacob that Josefov was destroyed by the Cossacks and that his wife was killed. After falling asleep for the night, Jacob awakens dreaming of Wanda. He is torn between his love for her and his duty to his faith and the community of Josefov.
Jacob has made the long journey back to the barn and finds Wanda sleeping. He begs her to run away with him. When she accuses him of abandoning her, Jacob insists that he loves her. Wanda consents to go with him.
ACT TWO – SARAH
Jacob and Wanda, who now goes by the Jewish name of Sarah, are introduced to the community of Pilitz by the village Rabbi. Jacob explains to the Rabbi that his wife is mute. The Rabbi appoints Jacob to teach at the cheder, or religious school. They encounter Gershon, the manager of Count Pilitzky’s estate and de facto leader of the community, and his wife, Beile Pesche, who are both cold to Jacob and Sarah.
In their new home, Jacob reads to Sarah from Isaiah. Sarah and Jacob discuss the need for Sarah to continue to pretend to be a mute while she is learning Yiddish. If it is discovered that Sarah is a gentile, then they will both be sentenced to death under Polish law. Sarah tells Jacob that she is pregnant.
The Jews of Pilitz are gathered in the synagogue for Yom Kippur morning services. Count Pilitzky storms in, demanding to see Gershon, whom he wants to kill for selling a bull. When Jacob intercedes, Pilitzky redirects his anger towards Jacob. Sarah rushes forward and begs, in Polish, for Pilitzky to spare Jacob. The community, stunned, explains to Pilitzky that Sarah is mute, so this must be a miracle. Pilitzky decides to spare both Jacob and Gershon. He fires Gershon and hires Jacob to manage his estate.
Pilitzky has called Jacob to his manor. After a theological debate, Pilitzky excuses himself but says that his wife has a few questions for Jacob. It becomes clear that Lady Pilitzky knows that Sarah is not mute. She warns him that women cannot help what they say when they go into labor. She gives him his wages for the week and intimates that it is enough money to travel far.
When Jacob returns home, he finds two pilgrims who have heard about the “miracle” and wish to be blessed by Sarah. Sarah begins to feel labor pains. Jacob urges the pilgrims to ask for the Midwife. The Midwife and some local women arrive. Sarah begins to scream and talk. In response the women go to get the Rabbi. The baby is born but Sarah is weak. Gershon and the Rabbi enter and question Jacob. Defeated, Jacob reveals Sarah’s true identity. Gershon says the Rabbi will excommunicate Jacob. The Midwife tells Jacob that Sarah is dead and that he needs to leave with the baby before he is killed. Jacob takes the baby and escapes.
EPILOGUE
After living in the Holy Land for twenty years, Jacob returns to the cemetery in Pilitz. Talking with the groundskeeper of the cemetery, he is able to find the approximate location of Sarah’s grave. Jacob, weak from illness and traveling, lies down. Sarah’s spirit appears and tells Jacob that he will never have to leave her again.