Composer THEODORE SHAPIRO (b. 1971) has distinguished himself as a composer of film scores and concert music, a rare straddling of genres among today's young composers. He has created music for two David Mamet films: Heist, starring Danny DeVito, Gene Hackman and Pattie Lupone, and State and Main. He also wrote the music for Girlfight, winner of the 1999 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and Sony Picture's Not Another Teen Movie. Shapiro's recent concert music includes Avenues, a piano concerto written for Awadagin Pratt, which he premiered in November 1999 with the Seattle Symphony conducted by Andreas Delfs. Avenues followed the composer's widely acclaimed chamber work, City of Windows, also performed by Awadagin Pratt at the 1999 Next Generation Festival.

A native of Washington, D.C., Shapiro studied at Brown University and the Juilliard School. He has completed concert works for soprano Lauren Flanigan and the New York Youth Symphony, which commissioned a flute concerto after the Shapiro won its composition competition.