Marsha Chusmir Shapiro earned bachelors and masters degrees in music education from the Florida State University where she studied composition and arranging with Charles Carter, and was music copyist for the FSU Marching Chiefs. She became further certified in social studies education, gifted education and educational administration, and taught in public and private schools in Florida for forty years. Over this period of time Mrs. Shapiro worked with students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade in band, orchestra, chorus, elementary music and musical theater, as well as middle school social studies. She also served as a mentor teacher for first year educators.
Mrs. Shapiro was the winner of the 1985 National School Orchestra Association Composition Competition, and the 2017 South Carolina Music Educators Association Grade 1 Sight Reading String Orchestra Composition Project. She was also named 1994 Florida Global Educator by SIRS and the Florida Council for the Social Studies. Shapiro is the author of numerous published orchestra, band, and elementary school musical compositions.
While now composing fulltime, Mrs. Shapiro plays the French horn in the Daytona State College Symphonic Band, the Double bass in the Daytona Civic Orchestra, and the viola in the Ormond String Quartet.