Biography

Alma Esther Shapiro began her piano studies at the age of five with Mrs. Anat Paul and Mrs. Adela Umansky. She is currently in her fourth year of a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance under the guidance of Prof. Tomer Lev at the Buchmann–Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University. From the age of eleven, Alma has been part of the Young Pianists Program at the Jerusalem Music Center. Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, she participated in the advanced piano program led and taught by Maestro Murray Perahia. From 2017 to 2022 she was a member of the David Goldman Chamber Music Program for outstanding young musicians. She studied music theory with Dr. Aline Gabbay.

Alma has participated in masterclasses with leading pianists and professors, including Maestro Murray Perahia, Prof. Boris Berman, Prof. Björn Lehmann, Prof. Milana Chernyavska, Prof. Franck Braley, Prof. Markus Groh, Prof. Pascal Nemirovski, Prof. Michael Wladkowski, Prof. Klaus Hellwig, Prof. Eldar Nebolsin, Emanuel Krasovsky, Ms. Lea Agmon, and Eugen Indjic. She attended the Edwin Fischer Summer Academy in Potsdam in 2023, studying with Prof. Klaus Hellwig, and took part in the “Verão Clássico” festival in Lisbon in 2024, working with Prof. Eldar Nebolsin, and in 2025 with Prof. Milana Chernyavska. She has won first prize in the national Psanter Letamid competition, first prize in the international “Scherzo” competition, and second prize in the “Pnina Salzman Piano Competition” and received second place in the Verão Clássico Academy Awards. Alma is a recipient of the America–Israel Cultural Foundation Excellence Scholarship (2016–2024). As a performer, Alma made her debut as a soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten, and has since performed with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, and the Academy High School Orchestra. She played concerts and recitals across Israel, London, Italy, Moscow, Portugal, and Germany. Her performances have also been broadcast on Israel’s classical music radio station ‘Kol HaMusikA’