Conducting Instructor

Versatile conductor Mark Shapiro is at home with orchestras, choruses, and opera. He is unique among North American conductors for having won six ASCAP Awards leading three different ensembles. The New York Times has admired his “spirit of adventure” and praised his work as "insightful” while saluting the “uncommon polish” of his music-making. Opera News appreciated his “superb pacing and great confidence.”

Shapiro was for ten years Music Director of The Prince Edward Island Symphony, which he now serves as Conductor Emeritus. He is Music Director of The Cecilia Chorus of New York, which performs regularly in Carnegie Hall, and Principal Conductor of Marshall Concert Opera. As Artistic Director of Cantori New York, Shapiro has led the group in appearances in all five major halls at Lincoln Center. Cantori and Shapiro have been presented by Death of Classical, Gotham Early Music Series, Great Performers at Lincoln Center, Music at the Anthology, World Financial Center Arts&Events, and many others.

Shapiro has been a visiting conductor five times with Juilliard Vocal Arts, and has conducted for American Opera Projects, the Center for Contemporary Opera, Encompass New Opera Theatre, Underworld Opera, and the Opera Company of Middlebury, as well as the opera programs of Hofstra, Mannes and Rutgers.

Shapiro has appeared on WNYC, WQXR, Sirius, and CBC, and was heard on PBS leading the orchestral soundtrack for Ric Burns’s special on New York City. He has recorded for the Albany, Arsis, Newport Classics and PGM labels. His recording of Frank Martin’s oratorio Le vin herbé was an Opera News Editor’s Choice. His 2021 album of music by Philip Glass with Irish violinist Gregory Harrington and the Janacek Philharmonic reached the Billboard Classical Chart twice.

Shapiro’s love for teaching finds expression at Juilliard Extension, Mannes, and Teachers College, where he teaches conducting, score-reading, and more. He has been a teaching artist for the Metropolitan Lindemann Young Artist Program, and each summer directs the conducting program of the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.