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Haim Alexander (Hebrew: חיים אלכסנדר; August 9, 1915 – March 18, 2012) an Israeli composer and music educator.

Biography

Alexander was born in Berlin, Germany on August 9, 1915. He was a student at the Stern Conservatory in his native city but persecution from the Nazi Party forced him to leave in 1936.^[1] That same year he emigrated to Palestine. He studied piano and composition with Irma and Stefan Wolpe at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.^[2] While a student there he made a living playing jazz piano in cafés. He graduated from the academy in 1945.^[1]

Alexander joined the faculty of the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem in 1945. He spent his entire career there where he taught a broad range of subjects that spanned from piano, harpsichord, music theory, music composition, improvisation, and musicology. In the latter subject, he worked as a visiting lecturer at several institutions during his career, including Tel-Aviv University, Hebrew University, the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, the University of Geneva, and New York University.^[1] Composer Miriam Shatal was one of his students.^[2]

Alexander also did work transcribing tradition Jewish music into musical notation for at the National Sound Archives at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. He was the recipient of several awards, including the Engel Prize in 1956 and the Artur Rubinstein Prize in 1973. He was given Golden Feather Prize for lifetime achievement by the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel (known by the acronym ACUM) in 1996.^[1]

Alexander died in Jerusalem on March 18, 2012.

Selected works

6 Israeli Dances, fo piano, 1951
Artza [To our Country], for orchestra, 1951
Ve'kibatzti etkhem [I Will Even Gather You], for SATB chorus, 1952
Bnot kol [Sound Figures], for piano, 1965
Nabut, ballet, 1971
Tavniot [Patterns], for piano, 1973; revised 1975
Piano Concerto, for piano and orchestra, 1982
Shirei Ahavah ve'Tzippia [Songs of Love and Expectation] (word by Litvin), for soprano and orchestra (1985)
Metamorphoses on a Theme by Mozart, for piano, 1990
Piano Sonata, 1994
The West-Eastern Bridge, organ solo, 1998