About Sherwood Shaffer

Sherwood Shaffer (born November 15, 1934 in Bee County, Texas on his Grandfather Dr. Shaffer’s farm) has composed over 150 “modern classical style” works, extending from solo, chamber to choral, symphonic, and operatic compositions with performances mostly in the Americas, Great Britain and Europe. He has had commissions (and tour performances) by the Clarion Woodwind Quintet, the Winston-Salem Symphony, classical saxophonist James Houlik, the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, New World String Quartet, percussionist Christopher Deane, New Century Saxophone Quartet, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and pianist Max Lifchitz, whose recording of his Lines From Shelley earned a GRAMMY nomination. Mr. Shaffer earned composition degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Bohuslav Martinu and Vittorio Giannini.

He has had a long distinguished teaching career. Early on, while still studying at the Curtis Institute of Music, he taught Modern Harmony and Advanced Counterpoint at the Neupauer Conservatory in Philadelphia 1958 to 1960. Following completion of his master’s degree, he was immediately appointed as the faculty member in charge of the entire faculty group teaching First Year Theory, Ear Training, and Keyboard Program, as well as teaching Advanced Counterpoint to senior composition majors at the Manhattan School of Music in Manhattan 1962 to 1965, where his new theory books were used for some years even after he had moved to North Carolina. As a charter faculty member of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Mr. Shaffer taught at various times all levels of Theory, Ear Training, Orchestration, Counterpoint, Composition, 4-year program of Composition Techniques for Composition Majors, as well as Graduate Studies in Performance Practice and Career Development from its founding in 1965 until retiring in 2000.

All the while he was composing and coaching performances of his many compositions. In 1992, he received the O. Max Gardner Award of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, the highest faculty award granted by the 16-university system, and the first musician to be granted the award since its inception in 1949. He has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, North Carolina Arts Council, and Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and is recorded on the Vienna Modern Masters, Opus One, Centaur, Channel Classics, and Aerophon labels. Major performances of his works have been variously at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Voice of America Broadcasts, various Bicentennial Concerts in USA, many Music Festivals in USA, Italy, and South American (like Por la Musica en les Americas Congress y Festival 88), US Navy Band Saxophone Symposium, Dock Street Theatre during Spoleto Festival, and various music schools and professional concert series by touring groups, plus many more.

An older adult sits smiling in a wooden rocking chair on a stone porch, wearing glasses, a light green graphic T-shirt, and a tan jacket, with hands folded comfortably and a glass door reflecting additional rocking chairs behind them.

Sherwood Shaffer at Wildacres, North Carolina, where he served as guest composer at James Houlik’s annual Saxophone Retreat. Many of his works were rehearsed and performed there, reflecting the close connection between place, collaboration, and the living performance of his music.

Sherwood Shaffer seated on a white bench beside his husband, Jeremy Reiskind, both wearing blue jackets and ties, smiling toward the camera against a red brick wall.

Sherwood Shaffer is pictured here with his longtime husband, Jeremy Reiskind, whose daily encouragement and partnership have long supported the creation and life of his music.