Lion of Lebanon/Creative Commons
Composer Aryeh Levanon passed away Tuesday at the age of 91.
Levanon, born Leon Weissman in Romania, immigrated to Israel in 1951. He has been a prominent composer and arranger in Hebrew music since the 50s. Among other things, he composed such assets as "The Singer of the Three Answers", "Lipa the Wagon", "Tall and Thin Mute Man" and "Arab Ba", which won the first Song and Chorus Festival in 1960. He also created the soundtrack to the film I Like Mike with Gary Bertini.
Levanon was also a major arranger and music director. He arranged the original performance of Shlomo Artzi's "Suddenly Now, Suddenly Today". He also served as music director in several programs of the Nahal Band and the Central Command Band, the Green Onion Band, and the first programs of The Pale Tracker and the show "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife", as well as of many plays such as "King Solomon and Shelmi the Shoemaker" and "The Reality Market". He also conducted the orchestras of the Children's Song Festival and the Oriental Song Festival.
Levanon, who also served as a lecturer at the Levinsky College of Education, has received recognition and several awards, including the ACUM Prize and the Yakir Tel Aviv Prize. Only earlier this year Levanon won the Arik Einstein Prize for veteran artists.
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