quote:

I've written and produced quite a number of pop tunes, including several new ones this summer in the midst of all my... uh... serious (!!!) music composing. Whether I've had success with any of them is questionable: a few have been used in low budget movies over the years, but I haven't yet tried to get anything on the radio or into a wider market (this may change shortly with the new batch; I'm gettin' bold in my old age).

This brings up another question:

Do you actually want that kind of success? I hear the term "selling out" all the time, I think it's hogwash. MacCartney once said something about this to the extent of "Hey John, let's write another swimming pool"

I would love to write the big K-Fed single, be musical director for Paris Hilton, be Larry Fortensky's librettist or Ashlee Simpson's air-violinist I don't think I can, much to my amusement. I sit down on the keyboard and that stuff just doesnt come out of me. Can a Ned Rorem or Corigliano write a Paul Simon song? Is it all techinique?

BTW, I will send you a message on myspace to hear my geek arrangements.

I enjoyed your MySpace clips! Your CD may very well do for these composers what Emerson, Lake and Palmer did for Mussorgsky, which would be fabulous. New approaches to get new audiences excited. Congrats! Your playing on the Suite is especially great.

Of course I'd love to see my pop songs reach the top of the charts and make me oodles of money. How else can I assist charities, set up foundations, and do what I can to improve the quality of other people's lives?
That's a better incentive than a swimming pool.... :-)

Hi,Miss Shapiro.If anything on this post looks weird,I'm new to this part of the site.You seem to write for a variety of instruments-how about percussion?
Oh-you are knock-dead gorgeous.

Aren't you kind! Well, I haven't killed anyone yet, so no need for worry :-)

One of my favorite pieces in my catalog is for piano and two percussionists, titled "At the Abyss":

http://www.alexshapiro.org/AttheAbysspg1.html

One player is on marimba and vibes and the other is on a rash of metal percussion-- crotales, gongs, tam tam, suspended cymbals, cowbells.... one of the most fun things was having the opening main melody of the second movement played on bowed crotales. And the mallets are in the lead throughout the jazz-oriented third movement. You can hear clips on the web link.

I love percussion and am always looking for ways to use more of it. Last month a comedic piece that I recorded which was originally for violin and harpsichord, just begged for percussion from, in this case, all parts of the world. So I spent a couple of days in the studio with a great player here in L.A. and we laid down 21 tracks of percussion that I've mixed with the original duet, and it sounds very cool! If it were done live with the violin/harpsichord duo, it could be performed with two players very easily. I'm excited to get it out there. I'd post a clip, but I haven't done the final mix yet.