Alex Shapiro (b. 1962) is hard to put in a box. Born and bred in New York City, she now resides on the remote San Juan Island in Washington State. Amidst ocean views, she maintains a sophisticated digital music studio. She is a pioneer of concert music with electronics, yet she was drawn to this type of music after many years in the TV and film industry. This background gave her training in digital media, but also brought her an opportunity to reconnect with chamber music. She is an advocate for composers of all stripes, having served on multitudinous boards and committees, and she is a sparkling personality. She gives her own “30-second overview” as follows:
Composer Alex Shapiro aligns note after note with the hope that at least a few of them will actually sound good next to each other. Her persistence at this activity, as well as non-fiction music writing, arts advocacy, public speaking, wildlife photography, and the shameless instigation of insufferable puns on Facebook, has led to a happy life. Drawing from a broad musical palette that giddily ignores genre, Alex’s acoustic and electroacoustic works are published by Activist Music LLC, performed and broadcast daily, and can be found on nearly thirty commercial releases from record labels around the world.
See MUCH more at her website, particularly on her bio page.
Shapiro wrote Off the Edge in 2019. It was commissioned by the N-BEAM (New Band Electro-Acoustic Music) Consortium and the Brownstown Middle School Band directed by James Mobley. Shapiro’s marketing-ready program note reads “What happens when a composer who loves the pop music of the ’80s and ’90s hangs out in dance clubs blasting house music in the 2010s? OFF THE EDGE offers a 140 bpm-thumping, EDM-jumping clue!” The pop influence is obvious throughout the piece: the location of each verse, chorus, and bridge (etc.) is even notated in the score. In addition to the traditional band setup, Off the Edge requires a speaker system capable of matching the volume of the band to play the audio track that is an integral part of the piece.
Here is a virtual performance:
And a live one!
Shapiro has a ton more information about Off the Edge on her website. You can also read about it at Hal Leonard, J. W. Pepper, and the Wind Repertory Project.