Ariel Shapiro [they/them] is a klezmer accordionist, cultural organizer, large-scale community cook, and multi-disciplinary artist based on Nipmuc, Nonotuck, and Pocumtuc land in so-called Northampton, Massachusetts. Ariel believes deeply in the transformative power of music and art that is centered around community and intergenerational relationship-building, rooted in culturally-informed history and artistic practices, and committed to justice and collective care work.
Ariel is a core organizer of KlezCummington, an annual Jewish cultural festival dedicated to the creation and deepening of Yiddish diasporic music and cultures, as well the People's Puppet Parade, a community-based, devised spectacle theater processional exploring radical histories and communal expressions of grief and joy. Ariel is a founding member of klezmer bands A Glezele Tey, Burikes, and Khaloymes, performing fresh takes on traditional klezmer tunes and Yiddish songs, leading community jams and zingerays (Yiddish sing-alongs), and accompanying Yiddish dancing and theatrical productions, including Jenny Romaine/Great Small Work’s “Three Cookbooks in the Garden: A stage illusion”, The Un-nameable Children's Project “Across the Ninefold River”, and A.C. Weaver’s “Inhabiting the Tsadik of the Woods”. Ariel also collaborates with Der Tkhines Proyekt, setting old Yiddish prayers (written for and by women and gender non-conforming folks) to new melodies, and composing new works to be sung in the streets, around kitchen tables, and anywhere they can be used to help tear down systems of injustice to build a frayer velt — a freer world.
