Michael Shapiro has performed internationally including appearances in Berlin, Siena, Victoria, New York, Boston, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C.  His repertoire as a conductor includes most of the standard symphonic, operatic, and ballet works as well as an insider’s understanding and appreciation for new music.  Michael Shapiro's background as an opera coach and concert pianist illuminates his work with soloists in vocal, operatic, and concerto performances.

Michael Shapiro has also collaborated with such artists as Teresa Stratas, Jose Ferrer, Janos Starker, Marin Alsop, Sergiu Comissiona, Eugene Drucker, Kim Cattrall, Timothy Fain, Edward Arron, Jerome Rose, Mariko Anraku, Clamma Dale, Anita Darian, Florence Levitt, Ayako Yoshida, Harris Poor, Kathryn Amyotte, Emily Wong, the Hawthorne String Quartet, Locrian Chamber Ensemble, Artemis, and Dateline NBC. In a celebration of the 75th birthday of WQXR radio personality, Robert Sherman, Michael Shapiro conducted the first performance of a new version of John Corigliano's The Red Violin Suite with narration with the composer in attendance.  Michael Shapiro served for two years as Music Consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. where he produced and performed the music of composers who perished in or fled Europe during the Second World War.  He also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Conductor's Guild. 

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Pianist Cynthia Peterson performs works from a broad solo, chamber, and contemporary repertoire.  Her performances include the American Academy in Rome, radio broadcasts in Washington D.C. and Virginia, Anderson House Museum in Washington, D.C., Minnesota, and chamber music touring in Canada.  She has appeared at many venues in the New York area including the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, and the Garden State Center for the Arts.  As prize-winner of concerto competitions, she performed the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester, and the Gershwin Concerto with the Virginia Beach Pops Orchestra, and was soloist with several local orchestras including the Yonkers Civic Orchestra and the Westchester Youth Symphony. 

She appeared at Yale University and the Metropolitan Museum with violinist Kyung-Jun Kim, and as the featured pianist in works by John Corigliano at the CUNY Graduate Center Auditorium, her performance hailed by the composer as “extraordinary.”

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Eric Drucker is a graduate of the Crane School of Music and holds a Masters degree from Ithaca College. He also studied clarinet with Stanley Hasty at the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Drucker has served as principal clarinetist and soloist with the Israel Sinfonietta, with which he participated in concert tours of Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, and he has performed in live radio broadcasts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Paris. He was also a member of the Sinfonietta Woodwind Quintet.

Eric Drucker is currently principal clarinetist with The Chappaqua Orchestra, Taconic Opera, and the Hawthorne Symphony in New Jersey, as well as performing regularly in chamber music recitals in the area.

Amy Goldstein has gained international renown for her remarkably versatile performances of opera, oratorio, Broadway, contemporary music, cantorial chanting, and for her critically acclaimed Naxos recordings for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music.

Of Amy’s recent off-Broadway debut in Gimpl Tam with the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, the New York Times glowed, “…it offers tunes that range from the hand-clapping to the heart tugging…and the lovely voice of Amy Goldstein in the songs ‘Fort a Shlitn Oyfn Shney’ (‘A Sled Glides Through the Snow’) and ‘Shluf Mayn Kind’ (‘Sleep My Child’).” Other theater credits include multi-accent monologues for exhibits in the National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadephia), female lead in A Sondheim Revue with Dances Patrelle at the Danny and Sylvia Kaye Playhouse, Dina in Bar Kochba with the National Yiddish Theater Folskbiene, principal soprano in The Music of Abraham Goldfaden in a tour of CUNY theaters with the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, principal singer/player in Gershon Kingsley’s Voices from the Shadow both at Merkin Concert Hall and in the world premiere recording for the Naxos record label, guest recording artist for The Actors Company Theatre (Cynthia Harris, Simon Jones, and Scott Alan Evans, Artistic Directors), and principal recording artist in Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of Great Songs of the Yiddish Stage for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music (Naxos Records).

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Founded in 2011, Shattered Glass is a conductor-less string ensemble dedicated to reimagining the concert experience. SG is a dynamic collection of global talent, with members representing Russia, Venezuela, Korea, China, Taiwan, and cities across the United States—all top young talent who came together for a common purpose: to present world-class performances.

At the core of SG is a commitment to the special relationship it creates between audience and ensemble. By performing without a conductor and tailoring each performance with exceptional attention to audience and venue, listeners can't help but experience a connection with every one of the musicians. Barriers typical of the classical music experience are, well, shattered. Already the most talked about young chamber orchestra in Manhattan, SG is taking the world of classical music by storm

Shattered Glass is non-profit organization. Our first season included a performance at the Times Center for a TEDxEAST event, a benefit concert at the Old South Church in Boston for the Liberian Education Fund. SG also arranged and recorded a video with Warner Music Group artists Kinetics & One Love with Vita Chambers (Universal Republic Records). Our 2012-13 season is a colorful and exciting array of events including Carnegie Hall, and Educational outreach at a high school in New Jersey.

Samia Bahu is steadily making her mark as a singing actress specializing in Italian opera. She received a glowing review for her portrayal of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut with Taconic Opera in 2004, which established her long collaboration with this company as lirico-spinto soprano. “… the essence of Manon, beautiful and seductive with expressive eyes and the extraordinary ability to sing in every type of soprano voice reaching high notes with aplomb. Most impressive is her command of the Italian language and style which make such challenging roles seem second nature to the Mediterranean born Soprano.”

Most recently Samia Bahu performed the title role in Tosca with Taconic Opera (2010) and the North Shore Music Festival on Long Island (2011); her other performances of Puccini roles include Mimì and Musetta in La Bohème, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro and the title character in Suor Angelica. Additionally, she has been acclaimed for her interpretations of numerous Verdi heroines, among them Violetta in La Traviata, Desdemona in Otello, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Leonora in Il Trovatore. In other recent engagements she has been seen as Nedda in I Pagliacci, Margherita/Elena in Boito’s Mefistofele, Antonia/Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. As a concert soloist, Ms. Bahu has been heard in the Verdi Requiem, the Mozart Requiem and in Haydn’s Paukenmesse at Carnegie Hall.

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Leigh Folta, a soprano originally from Westchester County, New York, is a recent graduate from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.  She received a Bachelor of Music degree and a law and society minor, along with honors recognition upon graduation.  Leigh has appeared in various productions with USC Opera and the Chamber Opera of USC.  She began performing as a child with the Westchester Girls Choir, where she was a chorister and a featured soloist.  Later, as a member of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, she performed for four years and travelled the world singing in numerous venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City and in Kyoto, Japan, Salzburg, Austria, and York, England.  Leigh competed in the Choir Olympics in Graz, Austria in 2008 as the soprano section leader with the Young People’s Chorus Concert Choir, which was awarded three gold medals.  She was recently named a finalist in the Undergraduate Division of the Classical Singer Competition.  She is currently working as a music theory teacher in Pasadena, CA, and is looking forward to singing more in the LA area before going to graduate school to pursue a Masters degree.  

Tenor Alan Briones, raised in Shrub Oak and currently studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) with Cesar Ulloa, returns to Westchester to sing Bastien. Alan sang the role of Parpignol in La Boheme with Livermore Opera and the roles of Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro and Dr. Blind in Die Fledermous at SFCM. Alan started as a boy alto, making his role debut at New York City Opera as the 3rd Spirit in The Magic Flute in 2003. Other roles performed include Roderigo in Otello, Toby in The Medium, and Malcolm in Macbeth, all with Taconic Opera. In the summer of 2013, he will participate in the Castleton Artists Training Seminar (C.A.T.S) in Virginia with Lorin Maazel.

John Dominick III, Bass-Baritone, was born in Pineville, Louisiana. His broad career includes work in Opera: Wotan in Wagner’s Die Walküre, Osmin in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, King Philip in Verdi’s Don Carlo, Colline in Puccini’s La boheme, Ferrando in Verdi’s Il trovatore, Frank Maurrant in Weil’s Street Scene, the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, Publius in Mozart’s La clamenza di Tito, King Balthazar in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Bide-the-Bent in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Pistola in Verdi’s Falstaff, the Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Jacopo Loredano in Verdi’s I Due Foscari, and the Four Villains in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann with such companies as the New York City Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, New York Lyric Opera, Opera Brooklyn, the Martina Arroyo Foundation, and Natchez Opera. Oratorio: Bass Soloist in Mozart’s “Great” Mass in C Minor, Handel’s Messiah, the Verdi Requiem, the C.P.E. Bach Magnificat and the Mozart Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in E Flat Major, at Carnegie Hall. Awards: The Wagner Society of New York, The Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, The Licia Albanese Foundation, and the Sergio Franchi Memorial Foundation. Upcoming Performances: Title Role in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer.