Annual American Composers Update
Alex Shapiro
Alex Shapiro has been honored with a 2000 Fellowship for
the Performing Arts Award from The California Arts Council,
in recognition of her compositions for chamber ensembles
and her "contribution to Californian culture." She also
has received a 2000 grant from the Los Angeles Alumni
Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon to assist in composing a new
chamber work, presented to her at a June 2000 concert
of five of her recent chamber pieces at a Mu Phi Epsilon
gathering in Pacific Palisades, CA. Additionally, she
has a 2000 Standard Award from ASCAP in recognition of
over 40 performances of her pieces in 1999. She invites
readers to visit her website,
www.alexshapiro.org
to learn more about her work and to listen to audio samples
of each of her recent pieces.
Premieres
Donna Fraser, violin; Norma Sexton, cello; and Charles
Badami, piano, presented
Piano Trio No. 1: Elegy
(1999, Activist Music), at the Christian Life Center,
Apr. 2000 in Bakersfield, CA.
Transplant (1999),
for organ, was premiered by Frances Nobert at the United
Church of Christ, Congregational, in Claremont, CA, Oct.
2000. In Jan. 2001,
Re:pair: for Two Baroque Flutes
(2000) was heard first, with Tom Moore and Laura Ronai
at Princeton (NJ) Univ.
Music for Two Big Instruments,
(2000) for tuba and piano, will have its first performance
with Norman Pearson and Cynthia Bauhof-Williams, at the
University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, CA,
Feb. 2001. All premieres except the first were commissioned
by the performers.
Performances
In Apr. 2000,
Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano
(1998); was performed by Virginia Wright, Paul Severtson,
and Paul Woodring at The Monday Club in San Luis Obispo,
CA. The Mu Phi Epsilon concert of Shapiro's chamber works
featured
Piano Suite No. 1 (1996),
Of Breath
and Touch, Piano Trio No. 1: Elegy, Shiny Kiss (1999),
and
Evensong Suite for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon and
Piano (1999), with Dorothy Spafard Hull and Delores
Stevens, piano; Carolyn Beck, bassoon; Patricia Cloud
Kaufmann, flute; Larry Hughes, clarinet; Dawn Phelps Neal,
violin; and Marilyn Harris, cello, June 2000. Also in
June 2000, Martha MacDonald and Delaine Fedson played
Intermezzo for Clarinet and Harp (1999) at the
Texas Music Teachers Association Convention, in Austin.
Works heard in Oct. 2000 included
Of Breath and Touch,
with Beck, bassoon, and Barbara Stewart, piano, at the
University of Redlands (CA); and
Journey (1999),
with Sabrina Berger, five-string electric violin, at Virginia
Tech, in Blacksburg.
Publications
Transplant (4'); organ;
Of Wood and Touch
(2000, 9'); cello and piano;
Music for Two Big Instruments
(7');
Re:pair: for Two Baroque Flutes (6');
Of
Bow and Touch (2000, 10'); bass viol and piano; all
by Activist Music.
Further Information
