On a recent INTERPLAY I had the privilege of conversing in music with conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, and guest at many of the world’s symphony orchestras and operatic theaters. …

By Michael Shapiro GIANCARLO GUERRERO is a miraculous conductor. A six-time GRAMMY Award-winning conductor, Music Director of the Nashville Symphony and NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Maestro Guerrero possesses naturally what I can only call unique elan. What does this mean? For…

By Michael Shapiro I was commissioned in 2001 by The Chappaqua Orchestra’s Boris Koutzen Memorial Fund to write the movie score for the classic film Frankenstein (1931) directed by James Whale and starring Colin Clive and Boris Karloff. The world premiere of the work with live orchestra and film, licensed…

by Michael Shapiro I recently spoke to conductor JoAnn Falletta on my show INTERPLAY, Conversations in Music. INTERPLAY is being broadcast on all the major platforms like FaceBook, Vimeo, and YouTube, and the Crossover Media Network, and as an Apple podcast. I have longed admired Maestra Falletta. Her phrasing, rhythmic verve, and musicianship is unique. There is a Falletta sound: warm, tight, expressive, and alive. She has always been attentive to championing American composers while seeking pieces in the international repertoire that may not be as well known as they should be. She brings everything to life.

By Michael Shapiro 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…

ARCHANGEL CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA by Michael Shapiro I am not sure why I picked up “Paradise Lost” by John Milton again. …

DO NOT BE COMPLACENT! by Michael Shapiro When my family was in Eastern Europe over a hundred years ago, Easter was a particularly virulent and dangerous time to be Jewish. Some Christians within and outside the Church used the period for their own power, avarice, and prejudice to foment widespread…

by Michael Shapiro In 1911, my conducting teacher and beloved friend Carl Bamberger, then nine years old, returned home from a day at his Viennese grade school to find his mother sitting at the kitchen table staring into space, a newspaper spread out before her. …

TWELVE TONES AND OPPRESSION by Michael Shapiro I just read about composer and pianist Charles Wuorinen’s passing. I was an undergrad at Columbia from 1969–1973 when Wuorinen taught undergrads. I saw him in the hallways at Dodge in those days. Wuorinen never smiled and was always taciturn. …