Some Facts About Neal
Hobbies: I have an ever-evolving electronic home music studio. I have used various combinations of software and hardware synthesizers to record and create original music.
Other careers he might have considered: I should have included some graphic design in my education. I have a knack for drawing. I loosely considered being an architect in high school.
What he's reading now: Harold Schonberg's "The Lives of the Great Composers". Schonberg uses the vast wealth of letters and public documents to support his insights into the private lives of some of history's most interesting people.
Favorite Memphis restaurant: Ruth's Chris or El Mezcal.
Favorite vacation: Chautauqua, NY, Ocean City, NJ, Homer, AK, Santa Barbara, CA.
Worst non-musical job he's held: I was a Data Entry clerk at a collections agency for a while. The floor supervisor would come out of her office exactly five minutes before quitting time and announce that we would need to do some "catch up". We would be informed that we could go home after all of the work load was keyed into the system. We almost never could predict when the work day would end. I loved seeing the sky and breathing fresh air when I finally did get to leave.
Most influential teacher: Zvi Zeitlin is a violinist and musician of the highest possible calibre. He is a very giving man who expects to receive the same commitment from his students. His no-nonsense expectations forced me to be more disciplined than I would have been with another teacher. He can play! He'd start in the middle of the Bach fugue you were working on and play to the end, flawlessly, just to prove a point. He practices what he preaches.
Earliest musical memory: I sang rounds with my mom when I was 2. I liked how beautiful harmonies were so easy to create. It was like magic.
Favorite composer: Bach, for joy. Beethoven, for dignity and fury. Bartok, for inventiveness.
What he listens to in the car: Electronica, techno, 89.9FM, and 91.1FM, WKNO.
What he enjoys most about performing: I like the challenge of doing my personal best to play my part well and to blend with my fellow musicians. Having the audience there inspires me to do more than I normally could.
Besides making great music, what is the symphony's most important role? The Symphony is a guardian of beauty. Live symphonic music in a gorgeous concert hall, like the Cannon Center, puts off the warm glow of pure beauty that can be felt as a campfire's heat. Our world doesn't have enough places to go and dream while awake.
Neal Shaffer received his BM and MM from the Eastman School of Music with Zvi Zeitlin. He also holds an MS in Education from Syracuse University. Before coming to Memphis, Neal was a member of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. While in Syracuse, he was the Elementary Strings teacher in the Cortland Enlarged City School District.