Michael Gordon Shapiro

Michael Gordon Shapiro's career began shortly after his film music studies at the University of Southern California, at which point he was recommended by composer/director John Ottman to score the indy political thriller "The F-Zone". Only twenty-five at the time, Michael wrote for and conducted a full-scale L.A. union orchestra comprised of A-list session players.

While continuing his work in traditional media, Michael also began writing for the burgeoning field of game music. From 1997 through 2002 he worked as music director for Boston-based Zoesis Studios, not only composing music for the studio but designing a proprietary reactive game music engine as well. Zoesis' game "The Penguin Who Wouldn't Swim" featured an adaptive live-recorded orchestral score at a time when reactive music was just in its infancy. Going freelance in 2002, Michael subsequently scored a number of game titles including Jane's Attack Squadron, the second and third Empire Earth games, and Star Trek Conquest.

Michael's background includes a B.S. in cognitive science from Carnegie Mellon, an M.A. in music composition from New York University, and a certificate in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Southern California.

Michael lives in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, and is represented by Bob Rice of Four Bars Intertainment.