Jazz composer Daniel Zamir, an Israeli-born saxophonist who found inspiration in the Chabad-Lubavitch community, won a Prime Minister’s Prize for composition. He was this year’s only non-classical composer to win the award.

Zamir, who graduated from the New School in New York in 2002, first showed interest in Jewish, Chasidic and East European folk music as a student. The music strengthened his commitment to Judaism.

“I found that the answer to all my questions was in Judaism,” Zamir told Israel National News. “It allows the person to become bigger than himself, to go higher than himself.”