Ofer Shapira

His delicate, melodious playing style has been described as 'sweetly subversive, music that woos and insinuates' by the New-York based jazz critic Michael Steinman.

Ofer has played lead alto with many bands and large groups including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. the Eli Degibri big band, the Eyal Vilner big band and many others. He has also played with many Tel- Aviv based small groups such as the Mamelo Gaitanopolous Sextet, the Danny Rosenfeld Octet and his own jazz quartet.

Ofer has also been active in the theater and popular music genre playing In the original Broadway production of the musical ‘Chicago’ and performing with some leading Israeli singers such as Ilanit, Yoni Rechter, Yehoram Gaon, Rona Kenan and others.

Ofer spent six years in New York in the early 2,000’ playing, writing and studying music. During his time in NYC he studied orchestration and arrangement with the late Sir Roland Hanna and with Michael Philip Mossman and saxophone and improvisation with Antonio Hart. He completed an MA in Jazz performance at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College and has also studied at the New School, Manhattan and attended the prestigious BMI workshop for jazz composers under the direction of Jim McNeely and Michael Abene. During his time in NYC Ofer performed at many of the cities' jazz clubs and venues and some works of his were played by the BMI New York Musician Union Jazz Orchestra and at the City University of New York 2002 Jazz Festival.

Ofer released his first album in 2010, which features the renowned baritone saxophone player Gary Smulyan. The album received many plaudits and Ofer was subsequently invited to perform the music in the 2011 Tel-Aviv jazz festival.

His second album 'Lockdown' was released in late 2020 under the NY based label Gut String Records and was described by jazz critic Michael Steinman as 'music with pauses, air space, nearly translucent, but still paying homage to melody, harmony, rhythm, improvisational swing'. Several tracks from the album have been featured on jazz radio programs in Israel and the UK.

Ofer continues to teach and perform in Israel and abroad.

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