He has also recently founded the New Lens Concert Series which aims to rebuild bridges between living composers and audiences by carefully juxtaposing masterworks with contemporary pieces which draw upon more traditional materials. Furthermore, New Lens does not reveal the program to the audience until after the pieces have been performed, thus negating many of the preconceptions tied to a composer’s dates. Launched in April 2012, New Lens featured five successful concerts by the Finisterra Piano Trio in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.
After concentrating on popular electronic music for many years, his focus is now exclusively on acoustic composition. Aside from writing for the concert hall, he has also written/produced music for films, dance clubs, rock and metal bands, hip hop MCs, modern dancers, and theater productions. When not composing, Shatzer can be found watching sports, cooking, or reading…all possibly with a nice glass of scotch within reach.
Holding degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Miami, he has also had the privilege of studying music theory at Florida State University and composition at institutions in Paris, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and Rome, amongst others. He is a member of New Music USA and SCI and is represented by BMI.
A condensed version of his CV can be found here.
