David Shapiro

David Shapiro, a musician living and working in Philadelphia, finds music that displays complex interweaving rhythmic layers to be fun and stimulating. Music like that of Bartok and the Afro-European group Zap Mama. In his own work, David often starts with a scribbled rhythmic sketch in the corner of a book or piece of scrap paper, which he plays around with in the many musical genres and styles that he knows and loves. 

David is thrilled to have composed for some of the most extraordinary musicians and ensembles of our time, including The Crossing, Lyric Fest, Mark Markham, Max Brod Trio, and the Philadelphia Singers. 

David earned a Doctorate in Composition from Peabody, studied Piano at Vassar and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and studied Jazz Piano with Ellis Marsalis in New Orleans. He has taught World Music, performed in a top-40 cover band, and keeps up to date with what’s new through his daily work as a music teacher in one of Philadelphia’s Public Schools.

For this piece about transformation, David had a pretty good idea of what he was looking for in a text. He sought a secular text that reflected the mind-blowing, big truths from physics about how we and our world came into being, that also showed humility and hope about the kinds of transformations we can make in our own little lives. When David couldn’t quite find that text, it occurred to him to write his own.