Harold Shapero

Harold Samuel Shapero (April 29, 1920 – May 17, 2013) was an American composer.

Shapero was born in Lynn, Massachusetts on April 29, 1920. He 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 (Kennedy 2006). With a friend, he founded the Hal Kenny Orchestra, a swing-era jazz band.

He was more interested in classical music. In his teens some of his teachers included Nicolas Slonimsky (editor of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians) in 1936 and Ernst Krenek in 1937 (Tommasini 2013). At 18 he entered Harvard, where he became friends with Leonard Bernstein and studied composition with Walter Piston in 1938 (Tommasini 2013). He also studied with Paul Hindemith at the Berkshire Music Center in 1940–41 (Pollack 2001).

Shapero was one of the first students at Tanglewood following its founding in the 1940s. 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 that summer, but Hindemith ordered that no student compositions would be played that season. Aaron Copland hastily put together an orchestra to play student compositions, including Shapero's Overture. Shapero was awarded the Rome Prize in 1941 for his Nine-Minute Overture, which included a $1000 award. World War II prevented him from taking advantage of the residency in Italy the prize provided (Anon. 1941).

At Harvard he held the Naumberg and Paine Fellowships. After graduating in 1941 (Anon. 1946b), Shapero undertook further studies with Nadia Boulanger at the Longy School of Music in 1942–43 (Pollack 2001). While studying with her, Shapero was also in contact with Stravinsky, who was helpful in his critiques of Shapero's music.

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