Harold Shapero

Harold Shapero (born 29 April 1920) is an American composer.

Early years

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Shapero and his family later moved to nearby Newton. He learned to play the piano as a child, and for some years was a pianist in dance orchestras. With a friend, he founded the Hal Kenny Orchestra, a swing-era jazz band.

Related Topics:
Massachusetts - Jazz band

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More interested in classical music, though, in his teens he studied with quite some famous teachers, including Nicolas Slonimsky (editor of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians) in 1936, and Ernst Krenek in 1937. At 18 he was ready to go to Harvard, where he studied composition with Walter Piston in 1938, and Paul Hindemith in 1940.

Related Topics:
Nicolas Slonimsky - Ernst Krenek - Harvard - Walter Piston - Paul Hindemith

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Tanglewood, a now cherished musical institution, was founded in the 1940s, and Shapero was one of its first students. When Igor Stravinsky was Norton Professor at Harvard in 1940, Shapero showed Stravinsky his Nine-Minute Overture. Shapero hoped to get the Overture played at Tanglewood in the summer of that year, but Paul Hindemith ordered that no student compositions would be played that season. Fortunately, Aaron Copland hastily put together an Orchestra just to play student compositions deemed worthy, including Shapero's Overture. (Unfortunately, the staffing of that Orchestra was rather uneven, and not really able to do justice to the scores.).

Related Topics:
Tanglewood - Igor Stravinsky - Aaron Copland

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Shapero was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1941 for his Nine-Minute Overture, but unfortunately, the war prevented him from taking his well-earned residency in Italy.

Related Topics:
Prix de Rome - Italy

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After graduating from Harvard's Class of 1941, Shapero undertook further studies with Nadia Boulanger. Boulanger came to the United States from Europe, seeking respite from the ravages of World War II. While studying with Boulanger, Shapero was also in contact with Stravinsky, who was helpful in his critiques of Shapero's music.

Related Topics:
Nadia Boulanger - United States - World War II

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