- Clergy
Cantor Shapiro served on the board of the American Conference of Cantors from 2006-2018, as a trustee and as vice president of member relations and external partnerships. Between 2018-2021, she was the cantorial liaison to the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Task Force on Women in the Rabbinate. Cantor Shapiro has a personal meditation practice and received training as a Jewish Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, where she now serves as adjunct faculty. She has gained recognition for her work in Jewish mindfulness practices through her creation and enhancement of programs such as Torah Yoga and Torah off Beaten Path.
Cantor Shapiro’s was the first female voice to be heard at the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York City. She has appeared in concert at Town Hall and Symphony Space in New York City; Beit Daniel, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Basilica of Santa Maria Degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome, Italy; and at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cantor Shapiro has been a leader in interfaith dialogue through Saint Joseph's University Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations and Sacred Heart University's Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding. She has been a guest lecturer at the Hebrew Union College (New York & LA campuses), New York University, Trinity College in Dublin, UCLA, and USC's Thornton School of Music.
Originally from West Hartford, Connecticut, she graduated with a B.A. in English from Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota, and then pursued further study at the Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. She received her Cantorial Ordination and Masters of Sacred Music from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003.
She is married to Dr. Scott Spencer, a professor of music at USC’s Thornton School of Music, whose work focuses on intersections of oral tradition and digital technology. They live in the Pacific Palisades and have two wonderful children; Zev and Frances.