Arie Shapira
Arie Shapira (Hebrew: אריה שפירא; November 29, 1943 - September 3, 2015) was an Israeli composer and music researcher. He won the Israel Prize for musical composition in 1994. Biography. Arie Shapira was born on Kibbutz Afikim. As a child, he moved with his family to Petah Tikva where he began to study piano. Shapira earned a degree in philosophy from Tel Aviv University and studied composition at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. His teachers included Abel Erlich and Andre Haidu. Music career. Shapira composed acoustic, electronic music and electro-acoustic music. He was a lecturer at Haifa University . His style was economical and almost minimalist using a universal musical language but invested with Jewish and Israeli themes. At the same time, his compositions evoked matters of life and death in modern Israel, and his receipt of the Israel Prize was deemed political, arousing opposition.