Jan Shapiro

Aside from her impressive three-octave-plus soprano voice, Jan Shapiro also plays several instruments ranging from the flute to electric bass and piano, and has devoted her life to the craft and study of singing. A St. Louis native, Shapiro studied at the St. Louis Institute of Music and completed her music degree at Howard University in the mid-'70s, but she spent most of early adult life on the road as a full-time singer working the hotel circuit, and continued to do so for a time even after her sons were born in 1979 and 1981. Eventually she took a teaching position at Sout...