[Arik]
(b Kibbutz Affikim, nr Tiberias, Nov 29, 1943). Israeli composer. He studied with two of the most influential Israeli composers at that time, Oedoen Partos and Mordecai Seter, at the Rubin Academy at Tel-Aviv University (BM 1968), but did not follow either stylistically. He turned instead to an extreme, politically motivated avant-garde style, influenced by Webern, Stockhausen, minimalism and the electro-acoustic music of the 1960s and 70s, an artistic direction which has led to his marginalization in Israel. A composer mainly of electro-acoustic music, Shapira is also an established private composition teacher. He was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers (1986), and, more controversially, the Israel Prize (1994), only the fifth such award to an Israeli composer in 40 years. He started teaching part time at the Open University, Tel-Aviv, in 1986 and at the Rubin Academy, Tel-Aviv, from 1990 to 1995...
