As a performer, Mr. Shapiro has concertized internationally including appearances in Berlin, Siena, Victoria, New York, Boston, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. His repertoire includes most of the standard symphonic, operatic, and ballet works, to which he brings an insider's understanding and appreciation for new music. He also worked as an assistant conductor at the Zürich Opera Studio and has appeared internationally as the conductor of his own music, including recording the film score for the Israel Broadcasting Authority documentary Distant Relatives.

Mr. Shapiro has worked in many musical and business pursuits, including as a composer, an accompanist to opera and Broadway singers, an administrator of his own artistic productions, and a lecturer and writer on musical and cultural history.

Mr. Shapiro's compositions include works for solo voice, piano, chamber groups, and orchestra, as well as for television, film, and opera. The New York Times characterized his music as "possessing a rare melodic gift."

Mr. Shapiro's works have been widely performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and he has received numerous honors and commissions. First performances of his works have been broadcast over National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting System, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Sender Freies Berlin, and major New York stations, including WQXR and WCBS-TV.

He regularly performs his own music and conducted The Chappaqua Orchestra in the world premiere of his score for the classic film Frankenstein at the Jacob Burns Film Center and later at the Paramount Theater in Peekskill. The work received its Massachusetts premiere at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Boston and was profiled on the front page of the Boston Globe. It was also performed at the Berkshire Museum, at historic Memorial Hall in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, and will receive it's Midwest premiere by the Beloit Janesville Symphony Orchestra in Beloit, WIsconsin on October 24, 2009.

Mr. Shapiro's prizes and grants include those from Martha Baird Rockefeller Composer's Assistance, Meet the Composer, Henry Evans Traveling Fellowship of Columbia University, the Columbian Award, Sigma Alpha Iota Composer's Competition Prize, and the Chappaqua Orchestra's Boris Koutzen Memorial Fund.

Mr. Shapiro served for two years as Music Consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where he produced and performed the music of composers who perished in or fled Europe during the Second World War. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Conductor's Guild.

Born into a musical family, Michael Shapiro began expressing himself with music at an early age. He won various piano competitions during his youth and, today, continues performing as an accompanist to singers and as a chamber music pianist.

Mr. Shapiro's composition teachers included Elie Siegmeister, Vincent Persichetti, and Sir Malcolm Arnold. Mr. Shapiro was trained in conducting by Carl Bamberger at The Mannes School, and by Harold Farberman at Bard College. He also studied solfege and score reading at The Juilliard School with Renee Longy.

Mr. Shapiro's recent projects include the composition of the score for a new prime-time NBC-TV crime series, and the second violin and piano sonata for Timothy Fain. His recent work, Roller Coaster for orchestra, commissioned for The Chappaqua Orchestra's 50th Anniversary Season, is scheduled to receive its California and Maryland premieres by the Cabrillo Music Festival and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under tha baton of Marin Alsop.