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Alan Shapiro

About Me

Originally from Philadelphia, I'm a musician and music teacher with a wide range of professional experience, as a jazz pianist, arranger, composer, accompanist, and as a teacher from elementary school through college. Since 1988, I've been teaching junior and senior high school chorus and general music in the New York City area. For nearly 20 years, I've been studying the philosophy Aesthetic Realism, and what I've learned has benefitted me tremendously, personally and professionally. Aesthetic Realism was founded in 1941 by the great American poet, critic, and historian Eli Siegel, who stated: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” This principle, true about music of every style, period and continent, and about people everywhere, is the basis of my teaching and writing.