The versatile conductor Mark Shapiro enjoys working with orchestras, opera companies, and choruses. A recipient of three ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, Dr. Shapiro is Music Director of the Opera Company of Middlebury and Artistic Director of Cantori New York and the Monmouth Civic Chorus. He has been a Guest Conductor of the Bridgeport Symphony and the Nova Sinfonia chamber orchestra of Halifax. Dr. Shapiro is Assistant Professor of Music at the CW Post Campus of Long Island University, and a longtime faculty member of Mannes College the New School for Music. From time to time he supervises graduate conducting study at Columbia Teachers College and teaches classes in Music and Science at The New School.
With Cantori New York, Dr. Shapiro has made four commercially-released CD’s, on the Albany, Arsis, Newport Classics, and PGM labels. His recording of Frank Martin’s oratorio Le Vin Herbé, was awarded Editor’s Choice in Opera News Magazine and the highest rating in the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs. Shapiro and Cantori have been supported by foundations including the National Endowment for the Arts. Cantori’s appearances have included Poisson Rouge, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series and World Financial Center Arts & Events. Notable collaborations have included the Prism Saxophone Quartet, the Cassatt Quartet, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Michael Tilson Thomas, who conducted Cantori at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall during its inaugural season. Cantori has a longstanding artistic partnership with the verismo opera company Teatro Grattacielo, where Dr. Shapiro is associate conductor; each year the two organizations perform together at Lincoln Center.
Dr. Shapiro’s credits as an instrumental and opera conductor include the Cygnus and New York Art Ensembles, Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum, American Opera Projects, the Banff Centre, the Metro Lyric Opera, and PBS, where he was heard conducting the soundtrack for Ric Burns’ special on New York City. With the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, Dr. Shapiro conducted Sofia Gubaidulina’s cantata PERCEPTION in the presence of the composer. His recording of Michael Dellaira’s opera Chéri, featuring Marni Nixon, has been released on Albany Records.
At Mannes College the New School for Music in New York, Dr. Shapiro has taught orchestral and choral conducting, conducted opera performances, and led the Mannes Chorus, which appeared under his direction at the United Nations. He created and currently oversees the Mannes Repertory Vocal Ensemble. At the CW Post Campus of Long Island University, Dr. Shapiro has taught instrumental conducting and music theory and led the university chorus and chamber singers. Dr. Shapiro maintains a coaching studio in New York, where he has played sessions for Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti.
A summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, Dr. Shapiro holds diplomas in orchestral conducting from the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, and the Peabody Conservatory, where his teacher was Gustav Meier. Shapiro subsequently earned a doctorate from Stonybrook University. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Yehudi Menuhin and Albert Roussel foundations, and is a member of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition.
