Harold Shapero

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Harold Shapero was an American composer, born on 29 April 1920 in Lynn, Massachusetts. He played the piano as a child and for a time was a pianist in dance orchestras. With a friend he founded the Hal Kenny Orchestra, a swing-era jazz band. His heart, however, lay with classical music. He was taught by Nicolas Slonimsky and Ernst Krenek, among others, went to Harvard at eighteen and studied with Walter Piston. Later he worked with Paul Hindemith and Nadia Boulanger. At Harvard he became friends with Leonard Bernstein.

Music and breakthrough

His Nine-Minute Overture was performed at Tanglewood in 1940, conducted by Aaron Copland, and won him the Rome Prize in 1941. In the 1940s he wrote a great deal, including three piano sonatas, a violin sonata and chamber music. His major work was the Symphony for Classical Orchestra, a symphony of about forty-five minutes in four movements. Bernstein conducted the première in January 1948 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and recorded the work in 1953. After that it was largely forgotten, until André Previn brought it back in 1986.

Influence

Shapero belongs to the American composers who used classical forms with a contemporary, American voice. He died on 17 May 2013. His experience of swing jazz and of rigorous classical technique makes him an example of border-crossing between worlds.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2003Serenade in D for String Quintet / String Quartet / String Trio
• 2012Mind Meld: Works for One Piano, Four Hands
• 2021Cowell: Violin Sonata no. 1 / How Old Is Song / Shapero: Sonata for Piano 4 Hands
• ?Symphony for Classical Orchestra / Nine-Minute Overture

In School of Rock

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