Jonathan Shapiro

Dressed to Kill (2025) performed by Decoder Ensemble @decoder.ensemble as part of ‘Future Recognition’ project at the Hamburg International Music Festival @elbphilharmonie with support from the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung @evs_musikstiftung Hamburgische Kulturstiftung and the Ligeti Zentrum @ligetizentrum ‘Dressed to Kill’ is a multimedia composition by Monika Dalach Sayers that spotlights the fast-fashion industry’s cycle of rapid production and short-lived consumption. Built on the “take–use–bin” model, where desire is manufactured, worn briefly, and discarded, encourages compulsive buying and growing waste. Blending electronic textures, live instruments, performative elements and vivid imagery, the piece explores our obsession with new trends and objects through a fast-paced and dynamic performance inspired by noisy polluted soundscapes, ASMR, and the seductive language of advertising. Concept, Composition, Video, Direction, 3D Audio Design - Monika Dalach Sayers Performed by Decoder Ensemble: Cello - Sonja Lena Schmid E-zither - Leopold Hurt @leopoldhurt Piano - Andrej Koroliov @andrejkoroliov Percussion- Jonathan Shapiro @jonathanshapirodrums Sound Design, Technical Assistance - Giovanni Dinello @giovannidinello Spatialisation Support - @ligetizentrum @xxtadexx

Haven’t posted anything for a while, I’ll just leave this over here. #drumlife #ilovedrums #drumhack #drumvideo #drumsvibe

Can anyone help me find a ticket for Meredith Monk at MaerzMusik on March 21st? Please PM me Kann mir jemand helfen, eine Karte für Meredith Monk am 21. März bei MaerzMusik zu bekommen? Bitte PN

Working on something new for this cool kick drum and two rototoms. More to come. #drumstagram #drumstagram #drumlife #drums #newmusic

The old Menorah unexpectedly broke so percussive ingenuity came to the rescue today. Happy holidays and everything else to all people of the world, hopefully next year will bring some steps in the direction of peace and understanding. Thanks to my friends at @blackswamppercussion BTW their woodblocks (and everything else they make) are amazing, high quality and long lasting. The only reason this woodblock was converted was because I first beat the heck out of it for many years before it cracked, and the I continued beating the heck out of it as a special effect sound for some more years.

A short excerpt of “Answerlessness” by @michaelbrailey premiered by the @decoder.ensemble at the Elbphilharmonie’s International Music Festival in May 2025 as part of Decoder’s ongoing project “Future Recognition”

A short excerpt of “Feathers”, Pt. 7 of my solo show Sound and Vision, composed and performed by myself, with light and visual design by @rosawernecke Film documentation by @flo_schmuck #drumlife  #ilovedrums #drumhack #drumvideo #drumsvibe #drumstagram #drum #drummer #drums #percussion #percussionist #newmusic #contemporarymusic #percussionlife #music #musician #musiclife #musiccontemporary #experimentalmusic #experimentalmusician #experimentalmusicalinstrument #decoderensemble #composition #composer #zildjian #blackswamppercussion #mikebalter #vicfirth

✨ DRAG & DRUM 🥁 is coming back to Berlin this Friday! ✨ So happy to return with this piece as part of the BAM Festival – Berlin Contemporary Musical Theatre Festival. We just toured with it (sharing here some snapshots from Köln 💛) and I honestly love performing this work. Contemporary Jewish rituals, queered up and transformed — a sonic, poetic, and very personal journey created and performed by Heinrich Horwitz, Jonathan Shapiro, and me. In Drag & Drum, Jewish ritual meets queerness, identity search becomes sound, and forgotten stories of Jewish life are uncovered and reshaped into new utopian visions. 📍 Friday, 21.11., 21:00 📌 CANK, Karl-Marx-Straße 95 🎟️ Tickets via BAM Festival Come join us for this wild, tender, genre-breaking ritual. Berlin, we’re excited to bring the drum back to you. 💥💫 @heinrichhorwitz @jonathanshapirodrums @rosawernecke @freeolala @bam_festival_berlin 📷 @luciesphoto Lucie Schulze at @ritual__music curated by @sophiemiliebeha #BAMFestival #DragAndDrum #ContemporaryJewishArt #QueerPerformance #BerlinTheatre

TBH I expected this too sound better and look cooler, but still, fun

**𝑷𝑹𝑶𝑮𝑹𝑨𝑴𝑴** 𝓓𝓻𝓪𝓰&𝓓𝓻𝓾𝓶- 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗶𝘁𝘇/𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗼/𝗪𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟭.𝟭𝟭. 𝟮𝟮𝗵 @𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗸.𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗻 -> in englischer Sprache Jüdische Rituale und Queerness treffen aufeinander in diesem Stück, das einen „Klangraum für den Drag der Religion“ entstehen lassen will und in dem Heinrich Horwitz, Jonathan Shapiro und Shlomi Motto Wagner sich auf eine Identitäts- suche begeben, die nach einer Vermittlung von queerem Leben und jüdischer Herkunft sucht. „Als queere, jüdische Künstler*innen schreiben wir an einer Herstory der eigenen Geschichte. Mit einem queer feministischen Schwerpunkt untersuchen, umschreiben, decken wir (uner- wähnte) Geschichten des Judentums auf und transformieren diese in neue utopische Ideen.“ KONZEPT Heinrich Horwitz, Jonathan Shapiro, Shlomi Moto Wagner MUSIK Jonathan Shapiro, Shlomi Moto Wagner CHOREOGRAFIE Heinrich Horwitz LICHT Rosa Wernecke KLANGREGIE Lola Tseytlin MIT Heinrich Horwitz- Performance Jonathan Shapiro- Performance Shlomi Moto Wagner- Performance Fotocredits Katja Feldmeier —- Jewish rituals and queerness collide in this piece, which aims to create a “sound space for the drag of religion”. Heinrich Horwitz, Jonathan Shapiro, and Shlomi Motto Wagner embark on a search for identity that seeks to reconcile queer life and Jewish heritage. “As queer Jewish artists, we are writing a herstory of our own history. With a queer feminist focus, we examine, rewrite, and uncover (unmentioned) stories of Judaism and transform them into new utopian ideas.” #bammusiktheater

Some snapshots of the amazing Drag and Drum performance last saturday! Thank you for coming out and celebrating this evening full of queer jewish joy and community with us! all pictures by @luciesphoto Cast:

@heinrichhorwitz Konzept, Performance, Choreografie
@jonathanshapirodrums Konzept, Performance, Komposition
@shlomimoto Konzept, Performance, Musik
@rosawernecke Licht
@freeolala Klangregie
Lina Gasenzer Assistenz ritual was created and curated by @sophiemiliebeha . The series is funded by @nicaartistdevelopment @mkw.nrw @musikfonds.de and the Kunststiftung NRW.
 [The slides show photos of the last ritual performance Drag and Drum.]

Queer and Jewish rituals, experimental sounds and instruments, and even a little Nirvana. On the first of November, the wonderful @ritual__music concert series from @sophiemiliebeha will present the music theater piece “Drag and Drum” co-composed and performed by myself together with @shlomimoto and @heinrichhorwitz at the @jaki.klub in the Stadtgarten Cologne. Amazing light design from @rosawernecke and sound by Lola Tseytlin Another performance of the piece is coming up at the @bam_festival_berlin on the 21st of November in @cank.berlin