Listed in both the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music and the
International Who's Who in Music, he is the recipient of several awards in
music, and his works have been performed throughout the U.S. as well as
in many cities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa.
 

Among his awards are the Rome Prize Fellowship (1979-80, American Academy in Rome), the Charles Ives Scholarship (1974, National Institute of Arts and Letters), and the Alfred Hertz Memorial Scholarship (1966-67, University of California). He has also had four residencies at the MacDowell Colony. The National Endowment for the Arts granted him first a composer fellowship (1978) for the creation of an orchestral work, Variations on Sumer is icumen in, then a consortium commission (1986) for a choral cycle Ages of Day.  In 1989 another consortium commission, offered by Meet the Composer, produced the instrumental trio We Three. The latter work has been performed in New York and Boston as well as San Francisco; Ages of Day was premiered in St. Paul, and has been heard in major cities in the U.S. and in Europe. Portions of it have been recorded on a Chanticleer CD. In recent years the NEA has offered two more grants, the first (1994) for the creation of his four-act opera The Goddess, now complete, and the other (1996) for the creation of a chamber cantata Four Lessons in Flow.

An accomplished singer as well as a composer, Shearer has appeared as soloist in important premieres of works of Roger Sessions, Seymour Shifrin, Fred Lerdahl, Claudio Spies, Charles Wuorinen and others. He has made commercial recordings of works of Shifrin, Conrad Cummings, and Anne LeBaron, as well as his own Five Poems of Wallace Stevens (1984).

Being a singer, it is natural that lie has written often for voices. His Symphony (1977) uses large chorus with orchestra. Beauty is a shell from the sea (1983) is for chamber chorus, while Mushrooms and The Illusion of Eternity (1985) are for male voices. These were commissioned by Chanticleer after an earlier sextet Nude Descending a Staircase proved a success with audiences and critics across the U.S. His cantatas King Midas (1990) and Girolamo Cardano, Physician of Milan (1992) are chamber works premiered by Composers, Inc. of San Francisco. His experience as an opera singer was put to use in the composing of his opera The Goddess, for which he also created the libretto from a screenplay by Satyajit Ray.
 

Strokes for Violin (1999) violin solo

Elegy and Walking Song (1994) for clarinet and viola

Travel Notes (1993) for trumpet, double bass, and percussion

We Three (1989) for flute, cello and piano

Fantasy for Piano and Chamber Ensemble (1986), a version of Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra

Fantasy (1974) for cello and piano. Fallen Leaf Press

Girolamo Cardano, Physician of Milan (1992) for baritone and chamber ensemble

King Midas (1990) for solo voices SATB and chamber ensemble

Incantations (1985) for soprano, clarinet and piano

IN PROGRESS: Four Lyrics for soprano, violin, clarinet and harp

Hercules and Antaeus (1988) for baritone and piano

Five Poems of Wallace Stevens (1984) for baritone and piano. Fallen Leaf Press

Five Pieces for Piano (1996)

Windows (1992) Fallen Leaf Press

Medallion (1983)

Serenade (1971) for baritone and chamber ensemble

Time and Eternity (1970) for mixed chorus

Four Songs on Poems of Rick Foster (1969) for baritone, cello, and piano

In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr. (1969) for mixed chorus