ANDREW SHAPIRO RECENT NEWS

SELECTED PERFORMANCE

POLAND TOUR: GDANSK, WARSAW, KRAKOW (April 2007)

Above: Performing at Café Absinthe, Gdansk, Poland. (Photo: Marcin Kalinski)

Ongoing solo piano performances at McDonald's, 160 Broadway (downtown Manhattan). Sundays Noon-4pm.

Andrew Shapiro with ensemble at Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, July 2006.

Andrew Shapiro with ensemble in a live, on-air performance at WMUC (University of Maryland radio), November 2006.

RECORDINGS

QUIET KISSING Released December 2006. (Click to play excerpts promo)

ANDREW ANDREW (4:11) (Click to play)

AIRBOX REMIXED: Andrew Shapiro's song AIRBOX (from Invisible Days EP) in a remix by Polish DJ "Boskey." Fall 2007.

SOLO PIANO 2: A second full-length recording of works has been composed and will be recorded by Andrew Shapiro in Fall 2007.

PINK JEAN MINT GREEN: Debut full-length album of electronic songs. In progress.

FILM

SILENT STANDING NATION: Film Produced by Praire Dust Films (Chicago) in association with P.O.V./American Documentary Inc. Directed by Suree Towfighnia. Original music composed by Andrew Shapiro. PBS nationwide broadcast on the P.O.V. (Point of View) Documentary Series on July 3, 2007. Synopsis: In April 2000, Alex White Plume and his Lakota family planted industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota after other crops had failed. But when federal agents raided the White Plumes' fields, the Lakota Nation was swept into a Byzantine struggle over tribal sovereignty, economic rights and common sense.

"It's good umbrage, mostly, that surging, almost euphoric response to a crusading documentary that frees you from the duty to be even-handed or hear out the other side." --The New York Times.

WAX DOLL: Film by Tercelin Kirtley (Paris). Produced and directed by Steven Wolkoff. Original music composed by Andrew Shapiro. Screened at the Belle Garde Film Festival (Loire Valley, France). Slated for festival release in 2008.

CLUSTERINGS: Video by Kurt Bigenho (Brooklyn). Soundtrack comprised of Andrew Shapiro's synthesizer pieces THE LINE and #2. Screenings at Mexico Arte Contemporaneo (Mexico City) and the Bushwick Open Studios and Arts Festival (Brooklyn). Synopsis: Clusterings is the "latest in connectional technology," allowing people to cluster together in groups of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. The project, inspired by the Japanese tradition of Chindogu (the art of the un-useless object), is about communication, negotiation and relationships.

TELEVISION

NEW ART TV is an internet-based television series produced by Robert Knafo (New York). Launching in Fall 2007, New Art TV features studio visits and interviews with leading contemporary visual artists. In addition to being appointed as a musical advisor and board member, an extensive amount of Shapiro's catalog has been licensed as theme music and underscore for five initial episodes. You can view the trailer here.

Synchronizations of Shapiro's music include underscore for the 2006 FIFA World Cup "Official Guide" (Australia, New Zeland and United Kingdom) as well as extensive use on the Biography and History channels.

Recent music composed for advertising (click to play):

CORTAL (:30)

HIV PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT (:30)

THEATER

TROUT STANLEY (Off-Broadway). Written by Claudia Dey. Directed by Jen Wineman. Produced by Renaissant Arts (New York). Original music composed by Andrew Shapiro (scene change and underscore of dialogue). 24 performances at The Culture Project, downtown Manhattan.

Synopsis: Trout Stanley is the story of the Ducharme Twins and what happened to them on their thirtieth birthday which as it happens is also the tenth anniversary of their parents' unseemly and untimely double-deaths. Dubbed “Yukon Gothic”, Dey’s writing is lyrical, evocative, sensual and compelling in its power; but nonetheless delivers enormous charm and humor. Trout Stanley inhabits a world much like that of the Coen Brothers and Sam Shepard, while very much being its own. At its epicenter, in Dey’s own words, is “our one reigning mystery, our most transformative force, our one common wish: love.”

"A deliciously lyrical piece of Canadian Gothic." --Anita Gates, The New York Times. May 2006.

RADIO HIGHLIGHTS

Andrew Shapiro appeared as a guest on "The Next Hour with Andrew Andrew" on WBAI radio (99.5 FM, New York). April 2007. The interview includes Shapiro's latest "portrait song" tribute to Shapiro's friends and performance artists/personalities Andrew Andrew and a discussion about Shapiro's long standing weekly solo piano appearances at McDonald's in downtown Manhattan. The interview can be heard here: [PART 1] [PART 2]

"Quiet Kissing EP" charted at #22 on UCLA college radio (November, 2006) and continues to receive airplay on over 50 college radio stations in the United States and United Kingdom.

"Detectors in the Eyes" from "Quiet Kissing EP" played in a national broadcast (UK) of Stuart Macone's BBC 6 radio program "The Freak Zone." April 2007.

SELECTED RECENT PRESS

"There's an interesting subgroup of composers who sing their own songs, blending aspects of art song and pop...Andrew Shapiro is a notable practitioner." --Alex Ross, The New Yorker. May 2007.

"A little slip of an emo disc, the slick gloss of "Quiet Kissing" is defined by Shapiro's bell-toned synthesizer setting but warmed up by a wistful lyrical line and in-the-flesh violin accompaniment, courtesy of Meg Okura. Shapiro's creation is dreamy quite beyond the usual abstract comparison point—rather the slowly rocking tempo and overlapping, whispery vocal track lull the ear and the mind into a contemplative state I previously thought could only be experienced by actors in independent films." --Molly Sheridan, newmusicbox.com. Spring 2007.

"There's a feeling [Quiet Kissing EP] will soundtrack the part on the feel good indie hit film of the winter when the protagonists kiss each other in Central Park while snow falls gently around them." --Ned Raggett, Stylus Magazine. June 2007

Extensive interviews in Polish Daily News, Nowy Dziennik & Kurier Plus (Poland, April 2007).